I Need An Effective Deterrent for Mountain lions from Our Property

We believe we had a mountain lion sighting in our shop Saturday night. It was, at most, about 8 ft away from me when it ran across my path at a fast rate of speed...and I never heard a sound. We have covered the ground in road base. We have the entire lot fenced, both with wood and chain link. After checking into mountain lion capabilities and how to ward off an attack, we are now looking into ways to deter them from entering the grounds. I saw that placing ammonia soaked cloth strips and moth balls around the property can deter them, but we are wondering if the ammonia might act as an attractant? As in a challenge? We have not smelled urine or found any scat so it may have been a random visit.
We have noticed our house cat detests the scent of ti tree oil...and are wondering if this would be a better deterrent than ammonia? Does anyone have any ideas, knowledge, or experience to help?

reply to post by missvicky


Might sound strange but urinate anywhere you can, not sure it will work with mountain lions, but it does with other animals.

reply to post by missvicky


If you can wait 12 hours, let me ask Mrs Madmac, she is an animal behaviorist and professional trainer... she will know

She also knows bobcats and mountain lions and their behavior... U2U me and I will happily pass it on to her

She would be happy to help... and keeps her off of my ass

Marking your territory only works for animals that respect/fear you as an equal or greater animal. (They can smell your activity anyway. They know perfectly well that you are active in that area.)

If they have no fear of you, then you can mark all day long, and they will pay no heed. They will pay as much heed to it as the territory that tiddles the one eyed arthritic cat marked.

When that point is reached, then the only option you have is to make them understand that you, and your territory will be respected. That can only be achieved by inflicting pain/death on them. They will have to learn, or die as a result of their refusal to learn.

If you live in a state that makes it illegal to “educate” the resident wildlife in proper respect, then I guess you only have one option. Hide inside and barricade the doors/windows.

.....................edit...................................
The young coyote never feared cats, They was always an easy meal…. Until he ran into tiddles the one eyed cat. He learned what pain was. He no longer sees tiddles as potential food. He stays as far away from tiddles as he can.

Hmmm...
I suspect from your post that killing it is not an option.

If I could not kill it I think I would try to drive off.

Before anyone gets too carried away please know I'm pretty much a vegetarian. I don't eat predators and don't hunt predators.

Still, if a predator bothered me enough to post here I would probably just use some non-lethal means of showing it that it wasn't welcome. Wooden staff and pepper spray? Sleep outside for a few nights with some motion detectors and area lights.

Anyways...that's my ATS answer.

My US Government answer is, "Call 911"!

reply to post by FrenchOsage


My wife is a behaviorist... she will not kill the animal if it isn't necessary... and she does know her stuff....

reply to post by FrenchOsage


My wife is a behaviorist... she will not kill the animal if it isn't necessary... and she does know her stuff....

Originally posted by FrenchOsage
Sleep outside for a few nights with some motion detectors and area lights.

Not advisable, not advisable.

Outside, asleep, with an unknown wild animal. Now, on the other hand… If you are wanting to be a nominee for the Darwin award, that is one sure way to do it.

Most cats don't like getting wet unless they choose to (tigers do this, not sure of any other big cats that bathe). Would it be an option to put motions activated sprinklers (do a search on Amazon) around the perimeter of your property? Cats learn by association so after a few attempts at crossing the boundary and getting wet, chances are it will avoid the area in future. These will also stop other unwanted visitors to your property.

reply to post by missvicky


If they do not have a history of coming onto your property - has anything around you changed? Freshly cut woods, new construction? Fires? If so then the problem may be that their habitat has been encroached upon and they are adapting to that.

Alternatively it could be that their natural source of predation could be in short supply for a variety of reasons, causing them to hunt farther afield or to look for targets of opportunity to scavenge.

Another factor is to see if there is anything on your property that might be tempting them in ( stored food, chicken coops, etc. )

What I'm getting at is understanding why they are encroaching might provide the answer as to how to get them to go away.

If I were you I would open a phone book and start calling around to places like animal control, forestry service, local universities, etc. You could probably find a conversationalist or group that would be willing to trap and relocate the animals back to the wild if necessary.

Yes the ammonia and/or the moth balls will work as well as anything .. Nothing is 100% if the animal is aggressive enough...

(My first two years at the university were in Forestry and Animal Biology and I grew up on a large farm that was very remote and we had these issues)

One of the ways a lot of old timers used was to buy and keep a mule or donkey on the property. They absolutely HATE cougars and kill them when they intrude on what the mule or donkey consider their turf..

Hope it all works out

We have the big cats here in Michigan too. The DNR doen't like to admit it or to deal with it.

Besides the grisly bear, they are probably the most dangerous animal in North America. The cougar will pounce on an unwary person from up in a tree in a surprise attack.

I live in a swamp and its full of all kinds of critters, unless it dries out, then they migrate toward other water sources, like small ponds, lakes and rivers. All wild animals will move into an area with habitat, food and water sources when the area they live in is lacking one or more of these. Mating season will put them on the move as well.

As for deterring them, try not to have anything they want like food, water, habitat, etc. If you have nothing they want, they won't be coming around at all or as much at least.

Three to Four Argentine Dogos will keep Mountain Lions at bey. These's dogs are bred for hunting Jaguars and Boars and they are fearless. They make good family pets, too.

Dealing with any animal which is not desirable to have around is pretty much the same, remove anything the animal may be attracted to on your property, find out what attracts it and if it is garbage or the like, bury or burn it a distance away from the area you don't want the animal snooping around in.

Get some monitoring system to alert you of their presence, like take a motion sensor yard light and rig a cord in one light bulb socket that feeds a camera and/or an audible alarm, so every time it comes snooping you can run it off and /or get a picture/video of what it is. You can also rig a system which produces a sound the critter doesn't like.

You can rig a system like this with lights all over the place and only 1 or 2 motion sensors connected to each other with simple extension cords and power strips, just don't put too much of a load on the sockets. All of this can be waterproofed with simple enclosures like old ammo boxes or outdated fuse enclosures, just leave an open area on the bottom to let any moisture back out that does get in. I used this method for coyotes and stray dogs and they don't come around any more.

Consider the fact you are taking over what was once it's space also, as far as respect goes, you just took part of it's habitat away. You may have to kill it.

We always complain about those damned deer in the road, but out of our arrogance we never consider the deer were there before us. We built the damned road in their woods.....

My vote:

Ammonia (used to get rid of raccoons, it worked).

Call your local forestry/wildlife agency. They have folks who come out, check tracks and will relocate animals for protection. I saw catch a bobcat & her kits once. Did a neat job. Minimal contact.

It wouldn't hurt to keep the gun handy. Until you know she's gone. It's summer, she may have cubs. Be safe.

If there's no potential food for a mountain lion on your property odds are good it was a random visit not likely to be repeated. They have enormous ranges (males up to 50 miles) and unless they have an established trail on your property I doubt you;ll ever see them again.
The only things besides man they fear are bear and wolves. Urine from either of those would likely deter any unwanted visits.
What state are you in btw?
If you have any pets you'd better keep them indoors.

reply to post by missvicky


If you have the fencing, where are they getting in? (or is the fencing not high enough)

Pull string firecrackers. Rig them up with fishing line across the trail. There are several brands. Here's one type that I found with a quick google... www.instructables.com...

Thanks everyone for your kind advice! the location is in a small township (unincorporated area of the county ) in Central Coast area of California. The property is our shop...about an acre and fenced on three sides with wood fencing and across the back with chain link. I think the problem is that a mountain lion can jump 15 to 18 feet high so our measley 8ft fences aren't much of an obstacle. Also, the property backs up to a creek. The house across the creek from us raises sheep. We don't keep dogs or cats or chickens there. We do a lot of barbequing there but all the food is in refridgerators that are either in a locked shed, a locked stick built building, or a locked catering trailer. Our trash cans all have locked lids but will revisit that. The funny thing is we have never smelled any urine or seen any scat so I'm thinking it was probably a one time visit. I have seen postings about the ammonia and moth balls, and even one about animated "scare crows". We may put up more lights though. Firecrackers are illegal in the county so that's out. So is discharging a gun in the town limits. I think mountain lions can be hunted but the license is very expensive, and I'd rather not have to kill it anyway. Interesting ides about the motion activated sprinklers. I can't wait to see what the professional trainer has to say!

How about you send a few over my way to eat my deer. And I will send some deer your way to distract your mountain lions. Those blasted demon bambi's ate my rose garden.