Types of coyote repellents

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When you have a coyote problem on your land, it would be easy to hop on the internet to try and find efficient ways to get rid of them animal(s). As great as the internet can be, in the sense that it will point you in the direction of a local pest control or removal expert, it can also be a very bad thing. People are free to write whatever they like on there, and that's why you'll often come across a weird and wonderful, as well as bizarre list of repellents, all said to keep away various wild critters. Coyotes are no different.



Natural Coyote Repellents
Among some of the natural coyote repellents you will find include:
- Ammonia-soaked rags
- Moth balls
- Wildlife eviction fluid
- Wolf urine

Sadly, as much as you would love to rely on natural and more humane methods to encourage these beasts away, natural repellents aren't always the best thing to use when trying to get rid of a wild animal like the coyote. These creatures are becoming less and less fearful of humans, and that doesn't work in our favour at all. In fact, it makes life rather difficult to get rid of them. Once upon a time, these animals would have been so frightened of humans that they wouldn't have dared to get too close. These days, they're moving closer and closer to human territories, and this leads to conflicts.

Ammonia-soaked rags aren't actually humane at all, likely to cause pain or discomfort/illness/injury to other animals, as well as humans, pets, and perhaps the coyote you were intending to repel. There is a chance that the coyotes will be repelled by the strong, corrosive liquid, but there's also a higher chance that the ammonia will do some serious damage. You definitely won't want this left unsupervised in your home, or out in your garden or front yard either. The ammonia can contaminate water sources, as well as soils and plants.

Moth balls can be just as dangerous in some circumstances, but, in general, moth balls just aren't known to work at deterring any wild animal. Coyotes are quite large creatures, they'd easily be able to kick the balls out the way. In many cases, these small balls with their bad smell just aren't enough to keep a hungry wild creature away.

Certain wildlife eviction fluids can work to repel coyotes, but you will need to look for a specific product that contains the urine of timber wolves. These larger dog-like animals are natural predators of the coyote, so if they smell the familiar smell of wolf urine (which is a territory-marker, as well as other things), they are likely to scamper off. As with other deterrents and repellents for coyotes, you would need to ensure that you reapply the repellent regular. Over a long period of time, and if you need to cover a larger surface area, the cost will go up. One bottle of the wolf-urine repellent may only cost a few bucks, but when you attempt to use that as your only form of coyote removal, you will find that the cost of a few bucks soon ends up being several hundred dollars. In the long run, it would have been a lot cheaper to just hire in the professionals.

One coyote repellent that can have some success is water. By using a sprinkler system that is set to off when a sensor has been triggered, for example, the coyote could be “scared off”. They won't appreciate a short, sharp burst of water, although a quick flick through Youtube will soon show you plenty of examples of animals that the sprinkler-system clearly hasn't worked for. In one video, a sprinkler system had been put in place to deter a raccoon, but the animal was videoed playing in the water, rather than being scared off by it.

Electronic & Other Non-Natural Coyote Repellents
Noise and light devices can sometimes work when you're trying to repel animals like coyotes from your yard. A sensor light is good to deter those critters that like to skulk around when the sun goes down, but these lights can also be quite annoying for the human residents of the community also. You will need to make sure that your light coming on in the middle of the night won't blare streams of light into a neighbour's window, for example, or even into your own.

Noice devices usually give off an audio that is of too high a frequency for human ears to pick up on, but there are actually a few people that can pick on these high-pitch noises. If you were to live in the same community as one of these folk, there's a very good chance the machine will keep them awake during the night when everything is else has gone quiet.

You will also need to take into consideration the costs that are associated with using noice or light machines to repel animals. Those that run on batteries will require replacement batteries every now and again, and the more you use something, the faster the batteries will run out. Mains-operated devices will put additional stress on your energy bill, although solar devices are a more self-sufficient option.

These machines will also need to be switched on constantly in order to work. As soon as you turn the machine off, the animal is free to come back. You don't want this, so leaving the noise or light machine on seems to be the only option.

Coyote Repellents — The Conclusion
After everything has been taken into consideration, it is very evident that wasting your time on coyote repellents is not something that is advised. With the money that you spend on these sometimes expensive devices, you could have hired a professional animal removal expert to deal with the entire problem, including making sure there is no way that the animal can come back. In some cases, your property will require basic modifications. In others, a simple clean-up operation is necessary. Each case is given it's own individual plan of attack. You just can't expect a one-size-fits-all solution, and that's essentially what you're asking for when using coyote repellents.

For more information, you may want to read How to get rid of coyotes or click on one of these guides that I wrote:
How To Guide: Who should I hire? - What questions to ask, to look for, who NOT to hire.
How To Guide: do it yourself! - Advice on saving money by doing wildlife removal yourself.
Guide: How much does wildlife removal cost? - Analysis of wildlife control prices.
Animals in the attic - read about the common species.
Noises in the attic - how to identify critters by their sounds.