Instructions
Build your pond with fish safety in mind. Avoid those steps so often shown in common pond designs if you have raccoons. They will use them to wade into your pond and help themselves to dinner. Smooth, straight sides make fishing more difficult. You can also add hiding spaces for your fish to hide in. Sunken milk crates and painted cinder blocks provide safe harbor where you fish can flee from those prodding little raccoon hands and the long, expert fishing beaks of herons and egrets.
Add some decorative discouragement. Fake owls and snakes can intimidate and sculptures of herons detour the real things since they think the territory is already taken. You will have to move your sculptures and model critters every now and then as even the wildlife will catch on to them being no threat if they are always in the same place.
Try some kinetic defense systems. There are whirligigs, water squirters and light flashers you can set up around your pond. Some are motion sensors and display their scare tactics when an invader trips their motion sensors. These are most successful after dark.
Sometimes all these efforts are still not enough. Occasionally some individual pests are remarkably resourceful and need to be held at bay with a low voltage electric wire or fence. It is best to set these mild shock-givers for activation after dark on a timer to avoid accidental shocks when people are around the pond. The electric shock is not harmful but it is definitely unpleasant!
Netting is another alternative. I do this anyway to keep the leaves out of the pond in the autumn. It isn't very attractive, though. So you probably won't want to use netting as a permanent deterrent.
For more information on how to keep garden pond fish safe, please see the additional links listed in Resources, below.
