Students from Drumshanbo, Co. Leitrim, took first place in the U18 Future Cast Young Entrepreneurs’ competition for coming up with a product specifically aimed at anglers, hikers and farmers who may need to cross an electric fence.
The Wire Anti Shock Protector (Wasp) aims to facilitate temporary access for adults over barbed and electric wire fences.
According to ESB Networks electric fences are “one of the top seven electrical hazards on farms”.
It has also advised that where an electric fence is erected near a public road, footpath or right-of-way, it should be fitted with a “suitable warning notice”.
Separately, the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) has also recommended that farmers should always check the electrical supply and outputs in their yards and building and to prevent electric shock from portable equipment, fit residual current devices (RCDs) on all socket circuits.
Award-winning students
Sophie Gillard, Giuliana Keane, Katelyn Murtagh and Toni O’Looney of Bumblebees won the award at the Winter Fest, Manorhamilton on December 8. Giuliana and Toni are from farming backgrounds.
The target market is adults: anglers, hikers and farmers. The Wasp could be useful to a farmer especially for strip grazing where they may be climbing over an electric fence more frequently than normal, they said.
The idea for creating the product came about after Giuliana heard her mother screaming in the garden and ran to help her. It was a windy day and she found her mother in distress after her clean white sheet had flown across the electric fence wire into the next field.
The challenge of getting over the electric fence to get it was brought back to the group members who brainstormed and came up with a product to assist people climb over an electric or barbed wire fence.
“It took a lot of research and hard work to develop the prototype,” the students said. “We got advice from adults in the construction industry as to the type of material to use and its thickness. We decided to use a bright yellow colour with a black stripe for raw materials that look like a wasp which is the name of our product,” they said.
Toni’s mother, Sinead Dore, said that her husband had to turn off the electric fence on the farm to enable her to climb over it. “With the Wasp product, I can now push down the wire and get over the fence.”
The students are participating in the student enterprise programme and the Wasp product has been developed by the four Drumshanbo Vocational School students as part of their enterprise project.
The students are selling their ‘Wasp’ product for €20.00 each. As well as a cash prize, they won a place at the innovative summer camp 2025 with Future Cast. Their slogan is ‘Get your wasp to escape the buzzz.’