It's been 26 years since I've had a bear in my house

[azygous]

Rotting bait is not a problem. Bears will find rotting bait as deightful and maybe even more of a delight than fresh. Bears are somewhat related to dogs in that respect. Have you not seen a dog run to a dead seal on a beach or a fresh cow pie on a pasture and roll in it? It's ambrosia to them.

The deader the bait the better. In the beginning of my keeping chickens, I had started a little chicken cemetery down the hill from my house. It had accumulated around six or seven deceased chickens when one year, a bear discovered the interments and dug them all up and I presume, ate them all.

 

[Tired old Rooster]

I think you might want to replace those baton rounds you are using with solid slugs. Shooting a large bear with a rubber round at a range close enough to hit him will merely hurt him. He will view the pain he just felt as being your fault. He will then illustrate his displeasure with you on the matter and he will not do so by calling 911 to lay an assault charge against you for your temerity.

 

[azygous]

I think you might want to replace those baton rounds you are using with solid slugs. Shooting a large bear with a rubber round at a range close enough to hit him will merely hurt him. He will view the pain he just felt as being your fault. He will then illustrate his displeasure with you on the matter and he will not do so by calling 911 to lay an assault charge against you for your temerity.

People who have never dealt with a bear are quick to suggest shooting them with live ammo. My experience with bears over twenty-six years and the stories my local wildlife officer tells me from his personal experience all point to rubber shotgun rounds and electric hot wire as the top strategies for controlling bear predation.

In fact, it is not easy to kill a large wild animal. Again, I'm speaking from personal experience. As a park ranger, I have had to put down sick and injured wildlife. Even when the animal is standing still and I was able to get within "can't miss" range, the animals were very hard to bring down.

The true story from my wildlife officer I will always remember is when a local farmer tried to shoot and kill a bear that was causing damage to his property. He succeeded in wounding the animal, and that more than a bruise from a rubber round will enrage a bear. That bear returned, broke into the farmer's house, and killed and ate him.

 

[PippinTheChicken]

We all talk so much about predator-proofing our chicken coops and livestock enclosures, we forgot to predator proof our own houses!
Glad you and your birds are okay. Hope you can keep the bear out for good

 

[MissE]

https://bringmethenews.com/minnesot...Ql2hEm_jToMdZ0CbkdOJAyeWamFQ5vk6MmEJx7duo4LS8

So this happened last week just a few miles from me.

 

[azygous]

That story is common occurrence here. I live between two mountain towns, and bears are almost as common inside the town limits as outside. The local hardware store makes sure the back door of the store is left open in summer so any bears entering the front door will have ready access to an exit. I was shopping one time as this happened. Employees stood aside as the bear sauntered in one door and out the other. I asked how often that happened. "All the time", was the reply.

 

[Little Chickadee]

The chickens are fine. They are protected by hot wire baited with mackerel and peanut butter. What I didn't expect was to finish up tonight with the chickens, turned on the hot wire, and came inside my house to find a full size, 400 pound black bear in my living room raiding my meal worm colony.

There he was. There I was. Fifteen feet apart. My living room is tiny, so it was a very intimate encounter. I was very calm and quiet mainly because I didn't wish to be killed, and I also wished to minimize the damage a 400 pound bear could do to my house. I propped open the front screen door, and pointed to the exit. The bear, who was scarfing up meal worms and wheat bran substrate, casually declined. Instead he decided to go out the window he came in, knocking over the seven foot ficus, smashing my Christmas cactus, crushing my lamp, and leaving the screen crumpled up like a balled up piece of newspaper.

I had picked up the can of bear spray, and having held back dousing him while he was inside my house, I let him have it once he was off the porch. This time the wind was coming from behind me so I didn't get sprayed as has happened in the past. But he only got the red cloud of burning love from behind, having little effect. But I still had my shotgun. It's loaded with non-lethal rubber loads. He sauntered off down the grassy slope with me following close behind. I got off one shot, but these loads are not very hot, so it probably fell short of hitting him. He will be back. They always return to the scene of the crime.

It's been 95F, and the house is hot, but since I wish to be able to sleep sometime tonight, I closed all the windows except my bedroom slider. As I mentioned, it's been 26 years since the last time a bear burgled my house. The other time, I had just moved in and had left for ten minutes to gather rocks for a retaining wall I was building. When I returned, there was a bear in my living room. But that bear had demolished every room in the house in the ten minutes I was gone. There are still scratch marks on the bathtub and on my kitchen stove and the window sill over the kitchen sink. The microwave was smashed on the floor. Drawers were yanked out onto the floor, and broken house plants and spilled potting soil were strewn everywhere. It took six hours to clean up the mess, and the bear came back that evening for more.

This time the mess was isolated to the end of the living room where my worm farm was. Luckily, the bear was satisfied only with the worms and not the beetles. As it was, meal worms were crawling madly all over the living room, but they move slowly. If he had dumped out all the beetles, those suckers move fast and in no time would be running over every inch of my 900 square foot floor space. So I have that to be thankful for.

View attachment 2723589View attachment 2723590Good times.

I am glad you are okay. Incredible!
And just have to say, I LOVE YOUR HOUSE! okay.. other than the bear.

 

[slowalker]

The chickens are fine. They are protected by hot wire baited with mackerel and peanut butter. What I didn't expect was to finish up tonight with the chickens, turned on the hot wire, and came inside my house to find a full size, 400 pound black bear in my living room raiding my meal worm colony.

There he was. There I was. Fifteen feet apart. My living room is tiny, so it was a very intimate encounter. I was very calm and quiet mainly because I didn't wish to be killed, and I also wished to minimize the damage a 400 pound bear could do to my house. I propped open the front screen door, and pointed to the exit. The bear, who was scarfing up meal worms and wheat bran substrate, casually declined. Instead he decided to go out the window he came in, knocking over the seven foot ficus, smashing my Christmas cactus, crushing my lamp, and leaving the screen crumpled up like a balled up piece of newspaper.

I had picked up the can of bear spray, and having held back dousing him while he was inside my house, I let him have it once he was off the porch. This time the wind was coming from behind me so I didn't get sprayed as has happened in the past. But he only got the red cloud of burning love from behind, having little effect. But I still had my shotgun. It's loaded with non-lethal rubber loads. He sauntered off down the grassy slope with me following close behind. I got off one shot, but these loads are not very hot, so it probably fell short of hitting him. He will be back. They always return to the scene of the crime.

It's been 95F, and the house is hot, but since I wish to be able to sleep sometime tonight, I closed all the windows except my bedroom slider. As I mentioned, it's been 26 years since the last time a bear burgled my house. The other time, I had just moved in and had left for ten minutes to gather rocks for a retaining wall I was building. When I returned, there was a bear in my living room. But that bear had demolished every room in the house in the ten minutes I was gone. There are still scratch marks on the bathtub and on my kitchen stove and the window sill over the kitchen sink. The microwave was smashed on the floor. Drawers were yanked out onto the floor, and broken house plants and spilled potting soil were strewn everywhere. It took six hours to clean up the mess, and the bear came back that evening for more.

This time the mess was isolated to the end of the living room where my worm farm was. Luckily, the bear was satisfied only with the worms and not the beetles. As it was, meal worms were crawling madly all over the living room, but they move slowly. If he had dumped out all the beetles, those suckers move fast and in no time would be running over every inch of my 900 square foot floor space. So I have that to be thankful for.

View attachment 2723589View attachment 2723590Good times.

WOW! Glad you are OK! Curious as to why you would bait the hotwire? Also, I am very interested in raising mealworms too. Any tips?

 

[NatJ]

Curious as to why you would bait the hotwire?

So the bear will notice the hotwire, and touch it with nose or mouth. That teaches it to avoid electric fences, and avoid this one in particular.

Bears have enough fur that they won't feel much shock if they just brush the wire on their way by.

 

[azygous]

Baiting the hot wire focuses the attention of the predator, tricking them into engaging with the hot wire as they investigate with their nose or tongue. You can do the math.

Mealworm farming is another entire thread. There are lots of threads on the topic.