So the area I live in is mostly nothing but mountains and surrounded by cornfields. Anywho I came home from work today and found poop on our back deck. It's adult bear poop...I know from hunting and my father confirmed it. My question to all of you is, do you know of a homemade bear repellent? Something that would keep them away from getting that close to our house. Totally not comfortable with them coming up on our back deck in count of the boys. We have never had bear problems before, mostly deer and skunks are around here. The bear also knocked a cinder block out of the way that was helping to keep the side door to the garage closed in count of the wind. The bear got into the garage where we put our trash bag from last night and made a complete mess....he also knocked the side door down which is an old wooden door with metal hinges.

So any suggestions?

This is the only time of year I don't have bear problems. Before I got my dog, though, it was much worse. We had a kitchen window that extended outwards (planter etc), and the window was left open one night while we were in town. it still had a heavy duty screen, but he damn near ripped off the entire thing. It had to be fully replaced.

Anyways, the yard where my pup does her business, it won't go near. I also built a lockable bin to store our recyclables and garbage. He still tries to get in it, but hasn't been successful, yet.

I have a friend who swears by big cat urine (purchased), but I've never tried it. I figured I'd always be buying it, since rain etc would constantly be washing it away.

No real answers, I'm sorry. I don't think there is a definitive one. He 'respects' us when we're around. When we're not, though, he likes to try and get at stuff.

We used to have bear problems when i was a kid, i remember cause my dad always kept telling us the guns in the house were loaded. I also remember he said the dogs helped keep it away, but for several summers between 8-10 we would get awakened by a black bear pounding on the back door ( dad had installed a steel door). It was always a little scary. Then one day my dad went on a deer hunting trip and brought me back a necklace he said he bought. It had a bear incisor as a pendant. I thought it was cool back then, but killing bears is illegal back home, and that bear never did come back... I always wondered where he bought that necklace. Seriously though, consult the local animal control, get some sturdy crossbars and use febreeze or some other odor eradicator on the refuse... after all the normal thing they track is food. If they think an easy dinner is in a can behind a door, they'll try to knock it down.

KFC. No one will go near that stuff!

Pepper spray everywhere. They won't be able to bear it.

I'll come over and wrestle it.... seriously though. Only halfway good repellant is high powered pepper spray, aka bear spray. But they are coming for a reason. Try to keep all food smells from being outside, and if it does hang around too much, and it's losing it's fear, it needs to be reported and relocated. No real homemade repellant i know of. But then again, we have dogs. Even then, they've been known to rip up our apple trees or garbage when given the opportunity.

They won't be able to bear it.

Lols!

Jason went out lastnight and pepper sprayed the whole back deck and garage door with his FOX spray that he had from when he was a correctional officer at the jail and it did absolutely nothing, because it came back lastnight and took another poop on the deck. Thankfully it couldn't get back into the garage though, because Jason rigged the door that it broke. We have a big basketball hoop in our yard, so he pulled it down and placed the base up against the door. When I get home from work I'll have to take a picture of what this bear did to the side door of the garage and post it. It's crazy!!! It took it off the hinges.

What happened was...with winter since it's so cold we don't burn, so we keep our trash in the garage and take it to the dump on the weekends. Then there is an outside cat that Granite named Mr. Jingles that we put leftovers out for. So Mr. Jingles gets fed no more!

Maybe I'll stop at the store on my way home and buy a bunch of hot peppers, chop them up and place them around outside for now, then over the weekend head to the local Gander Mountain store and buy some bear spray.

I don't doubt it ripped your door off its hinges. This is what I had to replace.

It was mostly a mangled frame hanging off the wall when we got home. Glass everywhere. The image shown isn't my window. Mine was a three width pane window treatment. Picture shown is two. I've also replaced my garbage bins several times, since it would leave big enough holes in them, it'd attract other creatures and insects.

One of the few drawbacks to living in the country. I actually hate meat bees more than the bear, though. They're freaking vicious.