Keep Wild Animals Out of Your Rubbish With These Effective and Inexpensive Tips

If you live out in the country and are tired of animals digging through your rubbish and strewing it around your yard, there are things you can do to deter these wild creatures.

Whether you are trying to keep them out of your regular rubbish bin or out of a skip you have hired for a special project, the following four tips are effective and relatively easy and inexpensive to implement:

1. Don't set a feeding precedent

If you are an animal lover who loves to hand feed birds, wallabies or other cute wild creatures, stop now. Hand feeding animals creates a dangerous precedent – instead of foraging for their own natural foods, hand-fed animals become reliant on humans.

Once you set a harmful feeding precedent, if you are not there with a handful of food, these creatures are very likely to dig through your garbage. In contrast, if you haven't created a culture of feeding wild creatures, they are more likely to stick with their natural patterns of foraging or hunting.

2. Double bag food waste

Of course, even an animal who has never been hand fed may have his or her interest piqued by the alluring aroma of a leftover pizza, a pot of beans or whatever food waste you have in your bin.

To stop these smells from wafting into the air, double bag and tightly seal any food-based waste.

3. Spray ammonia or cayenne pepper around your garbage

To further cut down on enticing aromas in your waste removal bin, spray ammonia or a mixture of water and cayenne pepper around the bin. You can spray each individual bag just before you close it and take it to the bin or skip.

Alternatively, you can spray the sides and top of your bin. In addition to hiding food smells, these solutions deter animals as most wild creatures naturally find ammonia and cayenne pepper to be off putting.

4. Cover the rubbish bin or skip

In addition to masking odors and taking steps to deter animals, you also need to simply make your rubbish harder to access. If you are hiring a skip from a rubbish removal company, make sure to hire a skip with a lid.

Then, secure the lid with bungee cords or ask for a bin that has latches on its lid. If you already have a skip or a bin that doesn't have a lid, create a makeshift one with a waterproof tarp.  

Share