Coyotes are wild animals that can cause harm to your pets or even little children. Thus, it is important not to tolerate them coming around your space. So, what can you do to keep these animals at bay from your house? In this article, we will walk you through 13 practical strategies to do that.
Coyotes are elusive animals, always looking for a nice, shady spot to hide away from the open. If they enter your space, they are either looking for food, a hiding place, or both. To discourage coyotes from coming around, below are a few strategies you can try out:
- Place guard animals in your yard.
- Use motion-sensor alarms and motion-detector lights.
- Use deterrents like perfume, cologne, predator urine, etc.
- Avoid leaving your pets outdoors, especially at night and in the morning.
These are a few strategies. We will discuss several others in the article.
We will discuss 13 tested and proven strategies for keeping coyotes at bay and answer some common questions about handling coyote infestation.
13 Ways to Keep Coyotes Away
Coyotes, by nature, are reclusive animals that avoid direct human contact. However, due to the world’s rapid development, they have adapted to urban environments. As a result, coyotes have seemingly lost their fear of human neighborhoods and are adapting to human presence.
One must adapt specific strategies to keep these animals away and prevent them from returning. Some of the best anti-coyote techniques are:
1. Create Physical Barriers
If you face random coyote invasions at home, you may need to safeguard your property to deter them. One way to do this is to erect physical barriers like fences and enclosures.
Since coyotes are jumping animals, keep fences at seven feet or more to keep these unwanted guests out. You can add coyote rollers or an outward extension to make the wall harder to climb.
Most people go for slat or chain link fencing. If you choose to do this, ensure that the slats are close together. Smaller coyotes can wiggle through if the slats are too broad, rendering the fence a useless barrier.
Another option is erecting an electric fence, as the shock can discourage coyotes from climbing.
Electric fences are not selective. While they effectively deter coyotes, they can shock any human or pet that touches them.
The hazards associated with this option make it a wrong choice if you live with children or pets. If you consider it unsafe, you can erect sheds or other physical barriers.
2. Don’t Offer Coyotes a Free Meal
Coyotes love a free-for-all buffet. Their sensitive nose will draw them to food sources like open trash cans and exposed pet food.
Offering them free food, intentionally or not, will have them running to your yard daily. Worse, they may even bring their crew along and cause more problems for you.
Even if you admire coyotes, don’t encourage them. These animals are wild and unpredictable. So, getting them used to human presence is a bad idea. They can get irritable and attack your neighbor’s pets—a problem you don’t need. But here’s what you can do to prevent this from happening.
Gather your trash and compost waste into secure bins so the smell doesn’t draw coyotes from a distance. Pick up fallen fruits from your garden before they rot and attract coyotes with a rotten smell.
Then, feed your pets indoors and clear all traces of pets from the yard and garden. Remove food bowls, and sweep up crumbs after feeding your pets.
3. Use Predator Urine as a Repellant
Although coyotes are predators, they don’t rank at the top of the list. So, they tend to avoid areas where larger and scarier predators live. Among animals’ circles, urine is one way to mark territory. Thus, you can use predator urines for these annoying animals.
However, which predator urine depends on the particular area. For best results, choosing from one of the predators that frequent your living space is advised. The reason is that coyotes are already familiar with the smell, which will serve as a warning signal. Urine from wolves or mountain lions is the most popular option, but you can research and select whatever is available.
Note that predator urine has an unpleasant smell. So, it is advisable to use them only on the perimeter of your property and not in the yard. This option is best for rural areas, as the smell can discomfort your neighbors in an urban dwelling.
Another thing to note is that dogs tend to roll in predator urine. So, if you live with a dog, you may want to skip this option.
4. Use Homemade Coyote Repellants
Some of the forgotten ingredients in your kitchen and pantry may be the secret to driving coyotes away. Plus, making a coyote repellant from these ingredients will save you some bucks.
One of the homemade coyote repellants involves mixing onions with jalapeños. Chop up some onions and jalapenos and boil the mixture in a pot of water for 20 minutes. Ensure the water is enough to fill a spray bottle or two. As the mix boils, stir in a tablespoon or two of cayenne pepper.
Once the 20 minutes is up, turn off the heat and leave the mixture to cool. Then, using a filter, sieve the water into a spray bottle.
Another homemade repellant requires mixing dish soap with castor oil and water. Get a gallon of water, a cup of liquid soap, and one cup of castor oil. Mix these ingredients and pour them into a spray bottle.
The last remedy involves combining white vinegar with tabasco sauce. One or two tablespoons of tabasco sauce will do for this mix.
Drop them into a spray bottle and pour white vinegar until it is full. This mix does not need water. Just shake the mixture and spray.
5. Try the Water Gun Strategy
Water guns are fun children’s toys but can also be an effective remedy against coyotes. So, you can drive coyotes away and have fun simultaneously.
Fill a water gun with undiluted vinegar to make your coyote repellant. Vinegar has a strong smell that most animals cannot stand.
The smell is strong enough to make a coyote change its location, especially if you use a lot of vinegar. Plus, a water gun filled with vinegar is a safer repellant option. It creates no risk of harm to the coyotes and will not cause them injury. Once you spot coyotes around, use the water gun on them. Don’t stop spraying until they leave.
Although vinegar is not harmful to children and pets, it can damage your plants. So, if you have crops in your garden or treasure your lawn, don’t use a water gun in those areas.
6. Haze Coyotes on Sight
Hazing coyotes on sight can make them see your house as a danger zone. Hazing involves making loud noises, like screaming, using an air horn, or banging metals like pots and spoons.
Waving your arms or a jacket can make you seem large to the coyotes and scare them off. You can also throw sticks or stones in their direction without hitting them.
This will make coyotes see you as a threat and make them change their direction. Whatever you do, maintain eye contact with the coyote.
They may run away a bit and turn around to look at you. So, the last thing you should do is turn your back on them because it creates room for an attack.
Instead, when the coyote stops, go closer and continue hazing it. Keep doing it until it leaves your surroundings entirely.
Coyotes that have not experienced hazing before may not run off easily. So, you may have to intensify your efforts and switch tactics. Other hazing techniques include stamping your feet and spraying coyotes with a water hose.
7. Place Guard Animals Within Your Yard
As predators, coyotes go after animals that are smaller than them. The presence of animals that outsize coyotes can help keep them at bay.
These include guard dogs, llamas, and donkeys. Besides scaring coyotes away, they can help watch over your livestock if you have any.
These guard animals can successfully aggress against a coyote by chasing after it to scare it away. Their kicks are also very powerful because of their size and can destabilize a coyote.
However, if you go with donkeys or llamas as your guard animals, get only a few. This applies where you want them to watch over your livestock. Once these animals exceed a specific number, they can form a herd and forget about their primary duty.
8. Use Motion-Sensor Alarms
This coyote-repellant option is fitting for people who lie in rural areas and don’t mind loud noises. Motion-sensor alarms automatically emit loud sounds whenever a large animal approaches.
This is unlike an air horn that you have to operate manually. Motion sensors are unpredictable, coyotes can’t see the alarms, and the sound startles them.
It typically indicates danger ahead, and the coyote will keep off.
9. Use Motion-Detector Lights
This is a more reasonable option if you live in an urban area where an alarm will cause noise pollution. These motion-detecting lights come on immediately after picking up a presence. The sudden light beams scare coyotes away.
The logic behind this is that the lights leave coyotes feeling exposed. It indicates that your surrounding may be too dangerous to enter.
However, this technique will only work on smaller houses as the range is typically limited. If your yard is large, the lights may not cover everywhere.
As a result, coyotes can navigate them by entering the shadows to dodge the lights and enter your yard. If you stay in a residential area, install your motion-detector lights lower to the ground. This is so that the flashing lights do not disturb other residents.
10. Use Perfume or Cologne as a Coyote Deterrent
Coyotes have a strong sense of smell that you can use against them. For example, perfume and cologne are overwhelming for these wild animals.
They can avoid your space just to be far from the choking smell. Another reason why they hate perfumes and colognes is because they associate the scent with humans.
However, this applies more to coyotes in urban areas with enough human exposure. As we said earlier, these animals are weary of humans and will do everything to avoid direct contact.
So, you can spritz perfume or cologne on bits of rags and drop them around your building. Like other spray repellents, you need to reapply these often, which can be stressful.
Plus, perfumes and colognes typically come in small sizes. So, this remedy may be too expensive when compared with other options.
11. Keep Your Pets Indoors
You may have to limit your pet’s movement to keep coyotes out. It is not rare to see coyotes enter people’s yards and snatch up unsupervised cats, dogs, or rabbits.
Since coyotes come around at night and early morning, it is advisable to keep pets indoors during those times. When walking your dog in areas where coyotes are sighted, keep them on a leash of 6 feet in length. This is so your dog does not stray and get into a scuffle with coyotes.
For chickens and rabbits, secure them in coops with mesh coverings. Ensure that the mesh covering goes at least one foot into the ground.
12. Clear Bushes Around Your Building
Coyotes are known to be elusive animals. For hiding purposes, they look for a nice, shady spot. If they invade your yard, they try to seek for food or a hiding place.
To dissuade coyotes from entering your property, clear all bushes, cut down tall grasses, and remove wood piles. Anything that coyotes see as potential cover needs to go, especially if they are close to water or food.
13. Use Ammonia and Mothballs As Deterrent
Both ammonia and mothballs have a strong odor that most animals hate. By setting these around your yard, you may successfully prevent coyotes from entering.
These methods are for short-term uses and will need regular replacements. Mothballs can also pose health risks to your pets and young children.
So, if you must use this repellant in residential areas, ensure you adopt the best safety precautions. Don’t leave mothballs around for children or pets to find and chew.
Conclusion
To many people, coyotes are beautiful animals and valuable parts of the ecosystem. However, these jumping animals pose a danger to small pets. There are many ways to keep coyotes away, like by taking away their food sources and spraying ammonia. We discussed 13 of these strategies in this article. Following them will help keep coyotes away and better prepare you for possible encounters.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Human Urine Drive Coyotes Away?
Most people believe that all kinds of urine drive coyotes away. However, there is no evidence that human urine can do this. Plus, the smell of human urine is not as strong as that of large predators.
What Do I Do When I Encounter a Coyote?
Never run from a coyote, as quick movement can cause it to chase after you. Instead, haze the animal using the tip provided in the article, or call the local authorities.
