When a Coyote Came Into Our Yard: What We Did About It

 

Living beside the woods has always been one of my favorite parts of our home. The wildlife, the quiet, the sense of being tucked into nature it’s all part of our daily rhythm. But years ago, long before my recent coyote article, we had an encounter that hit much closer to home. A coyote stepped out of the tree line and into our yard, and that moment changed how we approached living next to wild land. This is the story of what happened and the practical steps we took to keep our yard safe.

Our home is located directly next to 29 acres of woods, with a creek in the valley. That land connects to a state park, making it an ideal habitat for a variety of animals. We’ve always enjoyed watching the wildlife, but when a coyote came into our yard, it was too close for comfort. We knew we needed to act quickly, and this article explains exactly what we did to stop it from returning.

The First Visit

When coyotes come into your yard, the best immediate response is to scare them off. In general, coyotes are naturally fearful of humans. Most of the time, if you wave your arms and yell, they’ll run. But in the 15 years we’ve lived here, this was the first time a coyote had ever come this close. That told us something was attracting it, and we needed to figure out what.

What Was Drawing the Coyote In

Coyotes eat a wide variety of foods: small animals, insects, berries, and vegetables. I grow blueberries, Nanking cherries, and a full vegetable garden all outdoors and easily accessible.

After talking it over, my husband and I decided we needed a deterrent to keep the coyote from wandering into the yard again.

The Motion-Activated Sprinkler

We purchased a motion-activated water repellent the ScareCrow animal repellent by Contech. Installation was simple: stake it into the ground and attach it to the garden hose. It protects up to 1,200 square feet and is effective not only for coyotes but also stray dogs, deer, cats, raccoons, squirrels, and rabbits.

Here’s what happens when a coyote crosses the motion sensor:
The unit makes a sharp clicking noise and then releases a sudden burst of water. The noise startles the animal, and the water has enough force to create a quick sting. It’s harmless but unpleasant  exactly what you want in a deterrent.

The first time the coyote triggered it, it bolted. It tried a couple more times, testing the boundary, but each time the sprinkler fired, it backed off. Eventually, it stopped coming into the yard altogether.

Making the Yard Less Appealing

The next day, my husband and I walked the yard to look for anything else that might be attracting wildlife.

• Our dog’s food had spilled out of his bowl and was scattered on the ground. We fixed that by feeding him in the garage.
• We bought locking-lid trash cans from Lowe’s to keep animals out of the garbage.
• We cleared away thick, overgrown plants that created hiding spots. A manicured yard is far less comfortable for wildlife.

None of these changes were difficult, but together they made our yard much less appealing to curious animals.

A Note for City Residents

If you live in a city, your options may be different. In urban areas, I recommend contacting animal control and asking whether they can set a live trap to safely remove and relocate the coyote.

In our situation, trapping wasn’t realistic  there are many coyotes in the woods behind our home, and removing one wouldn’t solve the larger issue. Repellents and deterrents were the best approach for us.

Maintaining Backyard Wildlife Habitat

In 2004 my husband and I decided to grow a wildlife habitat that would naturally provide the songbirds, squirrel, deer and other wildlife with forage. We knew that initially the garden would not do as intended but within a few growing season we would no longer have to worry; the plants would adapt to the garden and the wildlife would have plenty of food.

Here are photographs of wildlife in the backyard habitat 

Raccoon by serviceberry trees 

Black butterfly and mimosa flower

Butterfly garden

Cat relaxing after visiting the catnip garden

Raccoon hiding in the grass garden

Well that was the plan and it worked well the first few years then came the droughts and the extreme heat during the summer months and we lost many fruit shrubs due to not enough water and or pests. We simply could not hydrate the plants with the water restrictions in our area.

So the following year we collected water from the spring rains in the barrels that I bought at Lowes.com. This was a good idea, however come end of July we had exhausted all of the water intended to sustain the habitat plants during the drought season.

Know that when we noticed the rain barrel water levels were getting low we then started collecting household water from bath, shower and water used to rinse the vegetables.  Yes taking buckets of water from house to outdoor rain barrel wasn't fun, the buckets were heavy and sometimes the water spilled out of the bucket when lifting to pour into the barrel. But by recycling the water we were able to have more water for the forage plants,  but it was not enough water to maintain the wildlife habitat throughout the summer.

Since we had lost many plants due to our extremely hot summers we decided to grow only native plants and other fruit bearing plants. Also instead of growing the forage plants away from the house we grew them closer. By doing this we were able to hydrate them with soaking hoses in the early morning on our assigned  watering days. We also invested in water retention mulch by Scotts. The cost of this mulch is higher than others but it is well worth it because it does help you to save water.

Initially our plan was to grow forage for the wildlife in our area, but with the changes to climates that idea became costly and one we could not afford to maintain.  Know that the wildlife habitat has changed to native plants that are maintained with the special water retaining mulch, soaker hose system that provide the plants at the soil level a slow and steady drip of water. We set these soaker hoses on a timer and water every other day for two hours in the early morning.

We continue to save the spring rain water but instead of waiting for the water level in these barrels to empty out before recycling, we started a water recycling system that we do constantly throughout the growing season.

By implementing the ongoing water recycling we found that the water barrel watering system does not deplete and has allowed us to continue to water our wildlife habitat during the hottest month of the summer.

Do you recycle water for your outdoor gardens?