Bear in my garage - residential bear deterrents

[eshunt]

So last night my dog woke me up barking. She never barks at night unless it's something out of place happening. Came downstairs and there was nothing out front or out back. She kept barking at the garage door, so I opened it. There was a bear that had opened my stand up freezer and was snacking on bacon, sausage and ground meat. Nothing quite like standing in my undies with what turned out to be three bears in my garage!!!

Anyway, I was able to open the garage doors and let them escape. Grabbed a pistol and inspected the damage. The bears had chewed their way into the garage through one of the wooden door panels. As we were cleaning up and bringing a few items inside the house, they kept coming back into the garage while we were right there. I really wanted to send a couple of lead pills their way, but we reside inside town limits and the cops really, really frown upon that kind of thing.

We had already installed some electric bear fencing on all three of the ground floor entry doors. These three bears had tried to break into the back slider last month and are apparantly very well habituated to people and even barking dogs. We ordered more supplies to continue the electric fence in front of the garage doors but it is going to be until Monday before we can have all the parts to complete the fencing. We made some nail-boards to put in front of the garage doors as a temporary deterent until then.

Do any of you folks have some good non-lethal bear deterrents in the mean time? Bag of ammonia with bacon wrapped around it? Experience with noisemakers/launchers? I don't want to try and use bear spray if they are inside the garage again, setting off one of those inside seems like a bad idea. And I don't want to lose all the wild game meat I have in my freezer or have my garage doors completely destroyed.

If we didn't live inside town limits, these bears wouldn't have a second chance at coming back, they would end up in the freezer themselves. But that is not an option so I am looking for any sort of deterrent I can use until the rest of the electric fence can be installed. I just hope that the fence around the garage will be enough and we don't have to do the same for the windows as well. We have cameras installed that send an alert to my phone upon motion/animal activity, but those don't usually wake me up in the middle of the night. I have lived in bear country almost my entire life and this is the first time I have had to deal with bears this aggressive and persistent.

 

[jimh406]

That stinks.

Your wildlife people should be able to trap it. I'd at least reach out to them. Once they are human habituated, there isn't much of a solution other than to trap them out or shoot them.

Sure, your problem might be solved if you harden your place, but if they are going through walls, they'll like just move to the next neighbor.

Good luck.

 

[brymoore]

Where do you live?

I don’t have real advice for you. I haven’t had bear problems. Removing food from the garage might help.

 

[eshunt]

Where do you live?

I don’t have real advice for you. I haven’t had bear problems. Removing food from the garage might help.

This is the Tahoe area. So bears have more rights than people.

 

[Redmt]

Cross bow. If one attacks you while try to get them out of the garage, you may have to defend yourself if all else fails.

 

[SerialScience]

This is the Tahoe area. So bears have more rights than people.

We had a brown bear pull the bear can out from under it's encloser and beat it until it gave in our driveway... ADGF killed 80 bears this summer who were getting into trouble around Anchorage.

What about rubber bullets (shotgun)?

 

[Tradewind]

We had a brown bear pull the bear can out from under it's encloser and beat it until it gave in our driveway... ADGF killed 80 bears this summer who were getting into trouble around Anchorage.

What about rubber bullets (shotgun)?

I agree, rubber bullets. You'll have to look hard, but you can find them for shotguns

 

[Dave N]

I agree, rubber bullets. You'll have to look hard, but you can find them for shotguns

Rubber buckshot seems like a good idea. Not all that expensive when maybe 1 round is all you need to scare off a bear.

 

[rookieforever33]

Bear spray

 

[Salmonchaser]

Being just outside of Katmai national park for 20 years bears were a constant problem. The standard defensive measures apply but they are very smart, if they found your freezer in the garage, they can find it in your house too.
Electric fencing worked pretty good, bear boards work ok initially but the bears will figure them out. I’d guess we sprayed several dozen bears that loitered around too long, that worked, but the bears were outside not in a garage setting.
Rubber sabots and buckshot worked pretty well as did bean bags. I would smack the cubs as well, they learn quicker. If you deploy a shotgun and less than leathal munitions you’re still discharging a firearm. I’m not aware California has a defense of life and property exception codified in law. FYI.
Old school in Alaska was a load of six shot in the butt. Been told it works every time but we never did that.
Keep us posted, they almost certainly will be back.
This one got sprayed behind one of the cabins, couple days later he’s walking down the beach, decided it wasn’t worth it.

 

[Jwill]

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I've used these rubber bullets on deer on my garden.

 

[Redmt]

Remember the potato cannons? Lots of boom and wide choice of projectiles. We tried lots of different sprays and found black enamel primer gave multiple charges for rapid reloading.

 

[Tradewind]

Remember the potato cannons? Lots of boom and wide choice of projectiles. We tried lots of different sprays and found black enamel primer gave multiple charges for rapid reloading.

now that is a great idea. I've got one of those someone gave me. They used 4 in pipe so you're kinda sending a mortar out here

 

[Redmt]

now that is a great idea. I've got one of those someone gave me. They used 4 in pipe so you're kinda sending a mortar out here

We used a 3-4" abs plumbing Y. A. 2" adapter to neck down for the barrel and a hand grip. Use a threaded adapter to open the chamber to add propellant. Primer paint lasted the longest. We then adapted a piezzo striker for ignition in the chamber. Stick the projectile loosely in the barrel, the depth makes a difference. Spray the chamber with propellant, screw the cap on and activate the striker. I suggest wrapping the chamber with several layers of fiberglass strapping tape.
My son actually did the development on this. He found that green fruit jammed tightly in the barrel would blow a hole in his neighbors metal shop. It was an expensive experiment.
Edit: I mentioned this to my kid. He said my grandson adapted a small propane bottle to a cannon. They kept adding blasts of propane until the chamber split. It was another bad idea.

 

[nrpate05]

Oh man, that's crazy they chewed their way into your garage. Game agency should trap those bears no questions asked, but if you can get them outside, I'd bear spray the sh*t outta them.