Coyotte Being Spotted in Suburbs
 

I am getting constant neighborhood alerts. The ring system is picking up a lot of coyotee activity in my subdivision. This is new, this winter, to the area. I need to plan now to protect my vegetable garden come summer. What will they be most attracted to? What is a barrier that makes sense in the suburbs? No pellets and staying up all night monitoring please!


- Lisa

Dirty cloths around the area works great.
Worth

Got plenty of those but not sure about the neighbors having my laundry flying about. Its bad enough back there already.

- Lisa

Lisa, what is the concern for your garden? If you and your animals are not out after dark, I would think the vegetables should be fine. Coyotes, and their inter-hybrids with wolves, seem to be increasingly common in many areas and a serious concern for livestock and outdoor pets.

I wasn't aware that coyotes bothered gardens. I thought that they ate small mammals like rodents and baby animals like deer. I know that the deer hunters in my area hate them because they go after the deer.

Coyotes are all over the place. Metropolitan areas, too.

[url]https://news.osu.edu/on-the-loose--urban-coyotes-thrive-in-north-american-cities/[/url]

i would think the local pet population would be at more risk than the garden to coyotes. coyotes won't pass up an easy meal. they may do a number on rodents in the area, but it won't be long before someones pet gets snatched if they are indeed moving in to the area. if you compost any kind of meat food scraps or leave any bones in the yard after that big barbecue you had over the weekend, any coyote in the area will be attracted to that.
garden should be safe. maybe keep an eye on the beefsteak tomatoes.:)

a number of years ago, we were driving home after flying into chicago, and i saw a coyote near the freeway on the out skirts of the city. i couldn't believe it would be in such an urban setting.



keith

Coyotes will tote off watermelons but if you're not growing any, don't worry about it. :lol: I'd worry more about cats or small dogs that stay outside.

I caught them on the game cam this summer after I found a trail of melon chunks leading to the woods. Then I looked it up and sure enough, they are the bane of commercial watermelon grower's existence. Who knew?

[QUOTE=brownrexx;721237]I wasn't aware that coyotes bothered gardens. I thought that they ate small mammals like rodents and baby animals like deer. I know that the deer hunters in my area hate them because they go after the deer.[/QUOTE]

Coyotes seem to really enjoy watermelon. The can gnaw holes in all of them big enough to have liquid in them in a few hours if undisturbed. I've also had them pick all the green tomatoes and take one bite of each one. And if they're willing to invade urban areas not much will disturb them. It will be a balancing act between keeping them at bay and not disturbing your neighbors' sleep. Coyotes typically avoid people, but population pressure, environmental damage, and more people moving into remote areas are changing some of the dynamics.

Things with human scent can help mark your territory. Or you can buy scent-based deterrents at outdoor stores. Fencing might help, especially electric fencing. But if you're in an area that's more than lightly populated, it's probably a problem you should attempt to find a solution to as a neighborhood rather than as individuals. It does little good to keep them out of your yard if they're still going to be comfortable in yards adjacent to yours.

I wonder if they go after watermelon for the liquid?

[QUOTE=Nan_PA_6b;721254]I wonder if they go after watermelon for the liquid?[/QUOTE]


My personal belief is that they do it just to make me angry. But I may just get really self-centered when I'm mad. :-)

Sheesh,there are coyotes all over the area where I now live, including where I now live.Yes I grow many kinds of veggies here, well someone else does that for me now and I've never seen them eat/destroy anything.Deer yes and also raccoons and also woodchucks as well.

Have you ever heard them talking to each other? Coyotes are most always nocturnal and so prowl around at night. And when there are several in an area you'll hear them howl,and get an answering howl back.

Carolyn

They're are probably more of them here where they're native than in the East where they're invaders. My closest neighbors aren't close and I don't have dogs or a yard light so I do see them icome into the yard occasionally. And hear them year round.

The tomatoes might have been a raccoon, but raccoons don't tend to leave anything if they start eating it. I might have suspected a squirrel, but given how few trees and how many coyets we have, squirrels are very rare. And I have actually caught coyote eating melons early in the morning. There are bigger pests, but the only coyote I want in my garden is a small yellow tomato. ;-)

I never knew that they would eat melons. Interesting. I guess that they are true omnivores!

As long as you aren't growing melons it looks like coyotes would be beneficial in removing other pests. They'll eat anything the can catch.

If you have any cats that are not coyote savvy, you may have a problem with that. Cats usually get hep to coyotes rather quickly though. If you keep chickens you will need to protect them as well. We have many many coyotes here where live. No problems with them in gardens.

They are growing in population around here. I have the privilege of living in the country and can use firearms to declare my territory to the local predators. I didn't think it possible, but I now won't go out after dark without a weapon. I was confronted by a "pack" of 7 coyotes year before last and that was pretty scary. However, I can say that the bold members of that pack no longer are a threat to myself, my family, or the cattle in the back pastures. Mr Remington has helped there. For those who don't know, take this problem seriously. It's kind of like the days of yore when the population had to take into account that there were wolves in the woods around the village. The only difference now is that the wolf is slightly smaller, but is just a smart and just as much of a threat.

Heads up, Y'all.

I garden in both the burbs and the boonies. Coyotes, coy-dogs or whatever have never caused a problem for me. As a matter of fact they can be a great ally. They will put a hurt on a rabbit population very quickly. And yes, they will run deer, but that is short lived as deer make adjustments and always come back to the food.

Coyotes come back for food too. The fact that they haven't caused a problem yet isn't proof that they're harmless. If they can threaten something as large and capable as a deer I'm not willing to think that they're not a threat. It's asking for trouble.

Ounces of prevention are almost always available. Some things need more than a pound of cure.

Got no use for em. They are an invasive species here. Cats, dogs, chickens, goats...they'll eat whatever they can run down. I prefer the ".223 solution." just sayin'...

"a number of years ago, we were driving home after flying into chicago, and i saw a coyote near the freeway on the out skirts of the city. i couldn't believe it would be in such an urban setting."

I lived in Wisconsin when the coyote population pushed out the fox. We had a number of cats disappear but no problems with the garden.

Fascinating about melons! I didn't grow many/any.

I use Tenax Deer fencing for my garden now. It's great for deer but rabbits chew their way through fairly easily. I wouldn't trust it with coyote.

Saw a fat one in my back yard the other morning.

Worth

It is not my area of expertise, but I have read that shooting them can actually increase the population afterward, by throwing off pack hierarchy and creating new competition for females, leading to more breeding and more coyote pups.

Interesting stories being shared. I have a total lack of knowledge about coyotes, and I have never seen or heard one, but apparently neighbors sharing RING video are worried about their pets above all.
Then again, [I][U][B]no one in my neighborhood has a backyard with a buffet quite like mine :)[/B][/U][/I]
[I][/I]
- Lisa[I][/I]

[QUOTE=Cole_Robbie;721300]It is not my area of expertise, but I have read that shooting them can actually increase the population afterward, by throwing off pack hierarchy and creating new competition for females, leading to more breeding and more coyote pups.[/QUOTE]

Makes sense, now that I think about it; I'll look into it. I'd rather not shoot an animal if there's a better way....

We no longer have many rabbits or quail anymore and it has been blamed on coyotes, but there really isn't a lot of coyotes around ... Red Tailed Hawks are killing everthing.

Red tailed hawks do eat rabbit and quail. But if they're in decline I have a feeling feral cats (as well as domestic cats that are allowed to roam) are a bigger problem than hawks. Cats get blamed for wiping out many species in Australia (mostly because they're actually responsible) so its really no surprise that they can have an ecological impact in North America too. Our barn cats always seemed to be dragging in varmits, leaving bunny parts where they weren't wanted, and scattering feathers all over the cowyard. With rare exceptions there seem to be fewer of most animal than when I was a kid. Insects, migratory birds, antelope -- less of lots of things. Edd except people, of course. And a few species that can spread into new biomes like the coyotes moving into forest and urban areas.
I think if we really need to find a species to take the blame we should consider our own. ��

Greenthumb: Down here south of you a bit, we have coyotes walking through the landscape regularly. I politely asked them to try the big city where there are lots of folks with little yappy dogs on the menu. Coyotes and bobcats have taken care of our pest rabbit population so now on to bigger things and better habitat in Omaha.

I told them to follow the river north and take a left at the zoo.

[QUOTE=oldman;721319]
I think if we really need to find a species to take the blame we should consider our own. ��[/QUOTE]

I am so much in agreement with this. Habitat loss and thus encroachment on areas where humans live and have built houses is the biggest problem for wildlife. Where are they supposed to live???

I always figure that they were here first and I try to live in harmony with them.

I live on a barrier island less than 1 mile wide and there are always coyote sightings although I have never seen one. I heard about them the first time a couple of years ago and wondered how they got here. Did they cross a causeway (unlikely) or were they intentionally brought here?