coyotes in suburbia

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Mar 3, 2016
Messages
989
Location
Cincinnati, OH and Port Charlotte, FL
We keep getting emailed notices from our HOA that coyotes have been eating neighborhood cats. We hear them sometimes but haven't seen one yet. We have more and more deer too...they are a menace at dawn and dusk.

I wonder how one would go about culling the coyote herd without running afoul of the law...
 
The deer were here long before our home was, but the coyotes are a relatively new addition. The police swat team culled the deer and coyote herds in one of the big local cemeteries a couple of years ago...threw the coyote carcasses in the dumpster and butchered the deer for a local food bank. I doubt the boys in blue would appreciate me doing my own cull.
 
Coyotes are extremely adaptable and can do very well in suburban environments.
Pet cats around me are generally eaten by fishers, we used to see and hear them a lot before a total moron neighbor hired somebody to trap them illegally. I'd much rather have the fishers than this horrible neighbor and his cats that go in the sandy play area we added for our daughter.
 
On a side note, I lived in a neighborhood with TONS of squirrels. A neighbor found one had chewed through part of his attic and was staring at him from a hole chewed in his living room ceiling so he declared war on the squirrels. He just got a pellet gun and would sit in his kitchen with the window open, knocking them out of trees.

All was fine and dandy until he aimed wrong and shot out the 4 foot triple paned glass sliding door at the neighbor's house. His wife took the pellet gun away...
 
How big are the lots and do you live in an area designated as no shooting. Cincinnati, OH I would suspect is vehemently anti gun, anti hunting. But you could live trap them. Submerging the live trap into a 64 gallon yard waste container is very quiet.
 
I'm not quite sure how my dogs would fare with a pack of coyotes...the boys could likely take out one, either kill it or at least run it off, but a pack could probably kill my dogs. The 1 year old is 80 lbs, give or take and the 6 month old one is about 65 lbs, so they are decent-sized but not huge.
 
Originally Posted By: JohnnyJohnson
How big are the lots and do you live in an area designated as no shooting. Cincinnati, OH I would suspect is vehemently anti gun, anti hunting. But you could live trap them. Submerging the live trap into a 64 gallon yard waste container is very quiet.


That's how we deal with animals we trap at work...throw the havahart trap in the pond with a rope attached, and when the bubbles stop, time's up. They used to poison raccoons with a neurotoxin in diet Coke (they perferred diet to regular for some reason) but they had this bad habit of wandering around drunkenly, making bystanders think they were rabid and freaking people out.

We live outside the City limits, but even the townships are pretty tight about discharging firearms. It's a subdivision with 1/4 acre lots but a HUGE greenspace behind that backs onto a county forest that is 1300 acres.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Originally Posted By: CincyDavid
I had to look up "fishers"...had never heard of them.
same here.


They are weasel like I think but the proper name is fisher cat. I took one out in my backyard apparently legally with a hav a hart trap.
 
Originally Posted By: JohnnyJohnson
How big are the lots and do you live in an area designated as no shooting. Cincinnati, OH I would suspect is vehemently anti gun, anti hunting. But you could live trap them. Submerging the live trap into a 64 gallon yard waste container is very quiet.
I live inside the Cincinnati city limits, and you're not allowed to discharge anything (unless you're one of the local "gangstas")-but I've been tempted to fire a few marbles with a slingshot at the "varmint Cong" squirrels.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Originally Posted By: CincyDavid
I had to look up "fishers"...had never heard of them.
same here.


Weasels that look pretty big with their fur but are actually quite lean and don't weigh a lot. They love to eat porcupines, get them flipped over and go to town on their unprotected tummies.
Fishers can raise a really awful racket at night and the first time I heard one, I thought somebody was doing something truly horrendous to an infant or toddler in the woods behind my house and taking their time about it. I went out in the dark with a big knife and a flashlight trying to locate the perpetrator and rescue the youngster...

You hear "fisher cat" a lot, but they're really just fishers. Not feline and they don't like fish...
 
Last edited:
Having pet food sitting outside is the first step. The raccoons and possums come in to eat. The coyotes follow. Loose lidded garbage cans also attract animals.

Here in the PNW, we also get bear sightings in the neighborhood. Saw a black bear years ago when we lived out in another area. Pets can be easy prey especially for coyotes. Bobcats too in some areas.
 
Last edited:
I live in a rural area and we have coyotes along with mountain lions and bobcats. I rescued a young female coyote that was hit by a car. Her hip did not heal very well and I went through the permit process and she now lives with us and all my dogs and a cat, some birds like crows that come to visit and a turkey vulture. I'm also permitted to rescue and care for other wild animals. We have a zoo of the despicable(s). She, Dolly the coyote and my Australian Cattle, Toby eat mice, rats, and gophers, sometimes rabbits and chase off squirrels. Evidently, squirrels don't taste good, something I have not confirmed but believe it just the same. Toby brings many these rodents to Dolly because she does not get around very well. When Dolly does go hunting she prefers gophers because she only has to dig them out and not chase them.

About 30 years ago there was a big effort to wipe out coyotes and they did a good job. They actually paid a bounty and varmint hunters were more than happy to participate. Problems? Wounded and dying coyotes that us locals had to go out, track down with their dogs and shoot them. Evidently, many varmint shooters sit in one place with a high powered rifle and take pot shots at their target and most often don't humanely finish the job if it's not a one-shot kill. Poison and traps got more domestic dogs and cats than coyotes. Also, rats, mice, squirrels, and rabbits overran the area over the next couple of years. The eradication program was never repeated.

My opinion about coyotes if very prejudiced because of Dolly and a life spent living here. She has a very strong personality but is also very affectionate. A few months ago she brought me my very own dead gopher. She dropped it in my lap while I was sitting at my desk. Her face, head, and front legs were covered in grass and dirt and she was panting. How could one turn down a gift from the heart?

I don't believe in wiping out coyotes and I think if a solution is needed that it's going to be difficult and time-consuming and very unpopular no matter what it might be.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top