Rodents are rarely welcome on farms, particularly if they have developed a taste for electrical insulation, or wish to find some cosy nook in a combine to build a nest.

To date, keeping them at bay has involved either the gory task of setting traps or placing toxins around the farm, which can also be found by non-target species.

Cheetah Electronics Ltd of Carlow have developed an alternative, called Rodent Shield, which comes in the form of a barrier that can be placed on the floor around the machine to be protected and administers a shock to over inquisitive rats and mice.

It is, in effect, an electric fence that works at ground level - not to keep stock in but to keep pests out.

The product is finding itself already in demand in Ireland, the UK, France and further afield.

The barriers come in metre lengths which are joined together by bolts and butterfly nuts. They are held upright by plastic uprights which insulates it from the floor.

Being easily assembled and disassembled, the barrier may be moved when the machine needs to be taken out to the field.

It does require a reasonably flat floor if mice are not to squeeze under it but there is plastic extrusion attached to the lower edge which can be adjusted to fill minor gaps.

Power comes from a standard charger unit.

The equipment is made and assembled in Cheetah's own factory at Ballon, Co Carlow.