As people move farther out into suburbs, exurbs, and rural areas, interactions with wildlife become more common. Because subdivisions and homesteads often displace animals, those animals look to suburbs and cities for much-needed food. To find food, wild animals, like bears, often look inside of garbage cans.
Bears roam several states in the northern and eastern parts of the US. Brown bears or Grizzly bears are common near the northwestern Canadian border and Alaska. Black bears live in a wide-spread area in the Upper Midwest and eastern states. They will wander up to 50 miles in a day to find food – and they love to dig in garbage cans.
Seeing black bears in suburbs and within city limits is becoming a common experience. They are speedy animals that have strong senses, especially their sense of smell. They are agile and intelligent, with good memories and the ability to navigate to food.
If you have bears near your home, you should keep your trash sealed tightly because bears will find it. They know how to get into garbage cans and have proven their ability time and again at campgrounds and rural homes.
What Makes a Garbage Can Bear-Proof?
Garbage cans need to have several features to make them fully bear-proof. Just having a lid that seals tightly isn’t enough. Bears are wily and will work hard to get into a poorly-built garbage can.
Heavy Duty Material
The best bear-proof garbage cans are made of materials that are built to last. One tried-and-true bear-proof material is heavy-duty HDPE. Metal is another material that is bear-proof. Keep in mind that bears can chew plastics, so if you buy a garbage can, be sure it is made of HDPE or another molded plastic that will seal tightly.
Whatever type of bear-proof garbage can you choose, be sure it is impact resistant. In their attempts to get to food, bears can do damage to any garbage can. Once the trash can is dented, bears have an easier time getting to the contents inside. If the garbage can is weakened by exposure to the elements, especially UV rays, bears also get quicker access by chewing or clawing into the receptacle.
Bear-Resistant Top
Bears are smart, and they show their intelligence when they figure out how to open garbage cans and dumpsters. The trash receptacles with basic lids are easily accessible to bears who can lift them with their jaws and paws. So, the key to bear-resistant trash cans are lids that require several steps to open them.
Bear-resistant tops twist into place or clamp on with heavy-duty straps and clamps. If straps are used, they need to be resistant to chewing. Twist tops need to be weather-resistant and dent-resistant so bears cannot break into them.
Once the top is in place, the best bear-resistant trash receptacles should be air-tight, too. This will keep odors from leaking out and attracting bears.
Keeping Other Animals Out
Bear-proof garbage cans should keep other animals out of your trash, too. For example, raccoons are frequent dumpster divers. If they smell food, they will do their best to get to it. Animals tend to have a better sense of smell than humans, so they are likely to smell scraps of food in the trash. Bears can smell food up to one mile away, and once they find a regular food source, they will come back for more. Other animals do the same thing.
Some of the best animal-proof trash cans are in National Parks. Because they are safe homes to animals, National Parks had to install permanent trash receptacles that animals could not access. Their trash cans are made of metal and look more like metal mailboxes. To throw away trash, you must move a latch to open a heavy metal door. Wild animals cannot open the heavy-duty trash cans because there are too many steps (having opposable thumbs is also helpful).
Considering Bear and Human Safety
Having bear-proof garbage cans keeps you and your family safe. When bears know where the food is, they will continue to come back for more. It might be a novelty to have a bear stop by for dinner occasionally, but it is far from safe. Bears have been known to enter homes and to stand their ground if challenged. They are smart, wild, and potentially dangerous.
When you keep the food sources unavailable, they will go elsewhere to find nourishment. This is the goal of having bear-proof garbage cans. Not that you keep bears out of your trash, but that you keep bears away from your home and family.
If you have black bears – which are the most common bears in the Midwest and Eastern United States, you most likely will not have safety issues. Black bears tend to retreat when they are challenged. They climb trees to get away from danger. However, if you have Grizzly bear – or brown bears – the opposite is true. Grizzlies will attack when challenged, especially if their children are nearby.
Keeping bears away from your home is also safer for bears. All too often, when black bears become nuisances in neighborhoods, there are two possible outcomes. One is that the bear is relocated. But, if the bear returns, the second option is that officials will kill the bear. Destroying the bear doesn’t always take care of the problem. If there is one bear, there is usually another who is also hungry and looking for food.
If you do have an encounter with a bear, you can expect the bear to feign aggression. The bear might make noises with its teeth or jaw. It might exhale heavily in an attempt to sound aggressive. The bear might also hit the ground or a tree or other nearby object. These behaviors are more out of fear than aggression. Your job is to give the bear space to get away from you. You mustn’t try to capture the bear.
Bear attacks are rare. In fact, more people are killed by snakes and dogs than by bears. Humans and bears have regular interactions, but attack rates are low. When it comes to bears and humans interacting, it is actually more dangerous for the bear. Many bears end up dying because they keep coming back to human homes for garbage-can food.
Community Garbage Ordinances
If your community does not have a garbage-control ordinance, you might want to take the initiative and start one in your neighborhood. Bears are persistent, and if you have them in your community, they can become relentless pursuers of available food. Garbage ordinances need to apply to both commercial and residential properties. Consider how delicious a restaurant’s garbage would be to a wild animal. Dumpsters are some of the easiest trash receptacles for animals to enter, especially creatures as nimble and smart as black bears.
Black bears travel during the day. They look for food in their territories, napping when they want. But, as humans move deeper into bear territory, black bears develop nocturnal habits. Just because you do not see them doesn’t mean they aren’t around.
Going Beyond the Bear-Proof Trash Can
Keeping your home and community safe from hungry bears involves more than buying a bear-proof trash can. There are several steps that homeowners and business owners can do to prevent bears from showing up on your property. Remember, bears have no concern for property, and they will quickly destroy garage doors, siding, landscaping, and cars to get to food.
Storing Garbage
To keep bears away from your home and trash cans:
- Put your garbage in air-tight plastic bags before you put it in the trash bins.
- Regularly clean your trash can to remove any smells.
- Keep your garbage can outside; never store it in your garage because bears will enter your garage to get to food.
- To keep bears from entering your garage, keep the doors closed at all times.
Consider what you put in your garbage, too. If you have meat or fish in your trash, it is wise to keep it in your home until trash day. The smell of meat and fish might permeate the garbage can and attract bears and other hungry, wild animals. You should also rinse cans and other containers to get rid of other bear-attracting smells.
Take Care of Bird Feeders
Your bird feeders can also attract bears. To keep bears away, feed birds when bears are in their dens through late fall and early spring. If you do keep bird feeders out all year, keep them on posts that bears cannot climb. Because birdseed often falls, you should clean it up to prevent bears from coming to clean it for you.
Manage Your Compost
Compost can also attract bears. Therefore, you should never put meat, fish, or sweet-smelling food that will attract bears. If you do put food scraps in your compost, add lime to take care of the odors. Keep your compost far from your home, so if bears do show up, they won’t have the opportunity to do damage to your home.
Feed Your Dog Indoors
Dog food can smell good to bears and other unwanted wild life. If your dog spends time outside, you likely have food outside for it. To reduce the chances that your pet’s food will attack bears, clean up after your dog, or choose only to feed your dog inside.
Keep Your Patio Clean
Bears love to eat meat. So if you grill regularly, your patio will smell like a feast to a hungry black bear. Always clean your outdoor grill after you use it. Keep the top of your grill closed. Clean well after every outdoor meal to remove smells from your patio and furniture. Consider keeping a loud wind chime near your grill. The unexpected sound might help keep bears away.
Install Electric Fencing
If you have fruit trees, beehives, pets, or other valuable items in your yard, you might consider installing electric fencing. Bears will not be able to enter. If the trees are near the perimeter of your fence, be sure to pick up fruit that falls on the safe side of the fence.
Unfortunately, electric fencing is not an option for everyone. Bears are easily scared. So, you can hang noise makers on a regular fence. Some people will use wind chimes, whistles, or water guns to keep bears off their property.
Bears can be destructive, which is why no one wants them on their property. Using a bear-proof garbage can and taking several bear-proofing steps, you can keep bears where they belong – in the wild.