As the weather warms up and fig continue to grow, soon the night critters will come. I've been thinking about getting this thing called Nite Guard Solar NG-001. It's a predator control light. Has anyone tried these? If so, did you place them according to the directions? The reviews are mixed and I'm not sure who's right. The reviews were mixed on the small Havahart traps too. After I got one I quickly learned the bad reviews came from people who did not know how to use the trap correctly. IOW, sometimes bad reviews come from a lack of know how.

Dennis,
I just removed my electric fence for a redesign and upgrade and I just had a rather messy "attack" on my figs.

Whether it was our problem bear or coons or . . . ??

Now I'm looking at these as well.

What I see in bad reviews a lot of times is something that has nothing to do with the way the actual product performs. It could have arrived late, been set up wrong, etc. You really have to carefully read reviews (as you say).

I'm going to see if I can find any qualified reviews by perhaps a college professor or grad student doing this kind of research.
I'm expecting a large crop of a lot of varieties this year and I'm going to be greedy about not sharing. 

I'm off to bed soon so I'll look tomorrow.
best,
mgg

Oh yeah. Dennis I use these motion activated lights that take D cell batteries and use LEDs. They aren't real bright but I've had them for a while now and still haven't replaced any batteries. They seem to help a bit at first. As you get further from the house they loose their "scare" factor.

I have those lights mounted all around my chicken and goat pens. I keep them at coyote eye level. I think the directions said that they should be moved occasionally so that the coyotes don't get used to them. I have no idea if they work or not. I've probably lost a dozen chickens over the past four years, but never at night; They have all been taken during the day while free ranging. One good thing I'll say is that since they are solar powered, I've never had to change any batteries and they've been going strong for 4 years.

What kind of predators are you dealing with?

Raccoons and possums come through at night raiding and breaking my fig trees. I got rid of a bunch last year but it breaks my heart to see a fig fig tree snapped in 2 by a critter. I'm planning ahead and trying to prevent them from coming around.