How do you keep bears out of the trash?
I need to know. So far, from what I observe, the answer is you don’t.
At around four am this morning the dogs went crazy, barking their heads off. After I woke, I went out with a good amount of trepidation to eye the trash barrel. I’d tied it to one of the posts under the deck on the side of the house. The bear wasn’t able to get the trash can from the post nor get down to the trash. The barrel was askew, but that was it. But the lid was punctured with bear claws and across the yard, but worse, it had taken its ire out on the post, damn near clawing it in half. There’s huge gouges in the wood to repair.
We fill one large trash bag that lines a garbage barrel about once a week. It’s far cheaper for me to take it to the dump than to pay a trash service, ($1.75 for a huge trash bag). I don’t want to keep my trash barrel in the house. It defeats the purpose, you know? The dump is too far away to go more than once a week.
Some of the neighbors have trash service and some don’t. We’re all far apart from each other on a dirt road. Come spring, almost every dawn, this road is strewn with trash at intervals from the bear’s party. This goes on until the damn things go to sleep for the winter. Folks get up, resigned, and pick up their trash. Some have burn barrels and burn the garbage along with paper and flammables. I don’t really want a burn barrel. I had one, but had a bad experience last year with sparks and some nearby brush. I don’t want the next forest fire to be my fault.
Some of the neighbors have put in sturdy fence posts to tie their trash barrels. This only works sometimes and they’re well-clawed by angry bears. I’d rather the bears stay away, but the ones who come, I’d prefer they not be angry.
I tied the barrel to a pine tree down a hill, (try to claw that in half, dratted bear!). They will get the trash out and I’ll be out every dawn along with everybody else collecting my garbage from the road. If somebody could invent a bear-proof trash barrel, they’d make a fortune. We humans should be able to think of a way. Any ideas?
Posted in Personal Stuff |
May 9th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Hey Monica,
I was just watching a documentary on bears the other day at a national forest. One of the rangers said that anything they invented to keep the bears away the bears eventfully figured out.
Wish I had a suggestion for you but I live in the city and the only bears I run into are…
Anywho, good luck on outwitting the bears.
Em
May 9th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Would the bear be able to tell the trash was in there if you built a special, enclosed brick shed/outhouse (with a door) for the trash barrel? Maybe that would trick the bear into thinking it was a small house?
May 9th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Moving into the city is a solution, but I like it out here.
A shed would have to be really bear-proof and bears are strong. It’s the same problen as with a trash barrel, I don’t know if you can make a bear-proof shed. They can slice into a locked, unoccupied car like butter. A friend left a box of candy bars in her car a few years back and they took off the door! An un-lived in shed wouldn’t have the human-occupied smell of a house and wouldn’t faze a bear.
Bears know if people aren’t there. As with all wild animals, they avoid people unless sick or very accustomed–which is the reason why it’s extremely unwise to feed the bears anytime or in anyway. One day you might not have what they consider enough food out and they’d feel comfortable enough to come in and help themselves to the refrigerator and food in the cabinets.
Waking up to a kitchen full of bears would be disconcerting.
May 9th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
They can slice into a locked, unoccupied car like butter. A friend left a box of candy bars in her car a few years back and they took off the door!
That’s scary! Hmm. The only other thing I can think of is that maybe they only go after food, so if you sorted your trash out, keeping the metal cans (washed), plastics and paper separate from the food waste, then they’d only go for the trash barrel that had food waste in it.
May 9th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Good idea! I think I need to separate the food waste and dispose of it more frequently somewhere…or compost it, but that’s so damn ambitious.
May 10th, 2008 at 5:05 am
or compost it, but that’s so damn ambitious
But if you put the food waste outside in a trash barrel that the bears can get into, won’t they eat the food waste for you, so you won’t have to bother with composting it? Or are the bears picky eaters?
You can see how ignorant I am about bears! But it would be rather neat if you could turn the bears into a waste disposal system.
May 10th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Maybe you could do what campers do? Suspend it? A really heavy rope? And be really, really careful not to let it tip over? I don’t think there’s another way, honestly.
May 10th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
I’ve never heard of animals eating compost…it’s rotting, right? I’d have to research how to start a compost pile. A garden up here is fraught too, because of the deer and other critters, but I do grow some plants inside.
Hanging my trash over a tree would work, but sheesh, what hard work. When I ran to get some gas today I took my little plastic bag of food waste and threw it in the gas station trash can.
I got a good rant churning within me about the cost of gas that most everybody can relate.
May 11th, 2008 at 4:14 am
I’ve never heard of animals eating compost…it’s rotting, right?
Now this is something I know about (though still not very much). You can end up with rats and mice in your compost, along with flies and other insects but it depends what you put in the compost pile and how you do your composting:
A rat is only likely to seek out a compost bin in the garden if incorrect waste items have been composted, making the bin a source of food as well as a shelter. For this reason you should not compost cooked foods, dairy products, meat, fish or bones. (from here)
I was thinking, though, that those cooked foods etc might be precisely the kind of waste the bears would prefer. So if it was separated out, maybe (a) they’d eat it and then you’d have less to take to the dump and (b) they’d leave the dry waste (paper, metal, plastic) and compost (vegetable waste) alone?
P.S. There are all sorts of different styles of composting. The University of Missouri has some descriptions of how to build different styles of compost bin here (but you need to scroll down a bit). They don’t mention the pre-made plastic bins, though, but I suppose it might be best for you to have a bin that the bears wouldn’t see as a challenge.
May 11th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
This sounds awful, but what about human urine (preferably male) liberally applied around the garbage can? It works for deer, btw. What if you had a brick enclosure with some type of auditory alarm system that would deter bears? Or …. maybe a pit or something deep like a well?
May 12th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Go pee around the trash barrel, honey, seems as if it’s the easiest idea, LOL! Will let you know how that works out.