How to Keep Bears Out of Your Yard

Two bears interacting near a white house in a wooded yard — Credit:
Getty Images

Bears will eat almost anything, and once they find food near your home, they're likely to keep coming back. Because repeated bear visits can be dangerous, the best approach is prevention. Fortunately, a few simple steps can eliminate food attractants around your property and help keep both people and bears safe.

Ahead, a wildlife expert shares effective ways to deter these lumbering visitors.

Rae Wynn-Grant, wildlife ecologist and co-host of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild.

Be Aware of Food Sources

Bears are incredibly food-motivated. “If they find food around your home, they're likely to return,” says Rae Wynn-Grant, wildlife ecologist and co-host of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild. “I always tell people that if food is accessible, bears will keep coming back. If it's not, they'll move on.” So don't keep food—even pet food, bird seed, or garbage—in a shed or outbuilding with thin walls, where bears can still detect the scent.

Bring in Bird Feeders

Bears are most active during spring and summer, so it's best to bring your bird feeders inside during these warmer evenings if you have bears lurking about. “Bears are constantly making calculations about where they can obtain the most calories for the least amount of effort,” says Wynn-Grant.

Even if a meal of bird seed sounds unappealing to us, it would be a great win for a hungry bear just out of hibernation. “Consistently removing bird feeders during periods of high bear activity helps prevent bears from learning that your property provides an easy, energetic reward," she says.

Secure Compost Bins

Bears have an amazing sense of smell. “Their olfactory system is extraordinarily sophisticated and allows them to detect potential food sources from long distances,” says Wynn-Grant. Food scraps in a compost bin, or even lingering food odors, can attract a bear. “Keeping these areas consistently clean reduces the sensory signals that might attract them," she says.

Seal Trash in Containers

“We often talk about food conditioning, which occurs when a bear discovers a reliable food reward associated with people or human infrastructure,” Wynn-Grant says. In fact, it only takes one successful meal from an unsecured trash can for a bear to begin incorporating that location into its movement patterns.

Over time, that behavior can become increasingly difficult to reverse. So make sure to always store your garbage in properly secured, bear-resistant containers.

Harvest Food Right Away

If you have a vegetable garden or fruit trees, then try to harvest your produce as it ripens. Bears can consume up to 20,000 calories a day, says Wynn-Grant: “With that large of an appetite, staying on top of the harvest can help reduce temptation, while also encouraging bears to continue relying on natural food sources.”

It may seem like a pain to constantly pick your fruit, but effective prevention methods always come down to consistency. Bears are highly intelligent animals, and they learn through reinforcement.

Seal Your Home

Even small habits, like routinely closing garage doors and securing windows, can make a big difference in keeping out bears. At the end of the day, the most effective strategies are the ones that help bears remain wild, says Wynn-Grant. When you make your home less desirable to them, they are more likely to move through an area without stopping and less likely to become habituated to people.

Motion-activated lights can discourage nighttime visits from bears.

Encourage Neighbors

Preventing wildlife conflict requires more than just one household's efforts, says Wynn-Grant. If one homeowner does everything they can to deter bears, but the next neighbor doesn't, then bears will still have a reason to come through the neighborhood.

“Talking with neighbors and encouraging everyone to follow the same practices can go a long way toward helping bears avoid becoming dependent on human food sources," she says. Coexistence with bears is possible, but it requires everyone on the street to adjust their behavior and to reduce opportunities for bears to become food-conditioned.