Most everything I know about pot I discovered on my own, first-hand.
Case in point...
I had a modest 15-plant grow in the woods about 1/2 mile from my house deep deep in the woods. So remote that if you walked from the house to the garden and kept walking, you wouldn't hit any house/town/paved road for at least 30 miles. (P.S. this is the same garden mentioned in my Helicopter thread).
It's mid-Aug. I go out to my garden one morning and freaked.
4 of the plants were torn up!
I had been using grow bags; they had been ripped open and the plants trampled!
It only took me half a minute to figure out what happened.
I was aware that at least 1 bear lived in that neck of the woods. My dog would get hyper when we went out there, and I could tell from her reaction and also I'd seen bear prints/scat.
Now I'm back at the pad. I needed something and I needed it fast. I started calling people I know who hunt.
They knew how to attract bears (deer guts) but not how to deter them.
1 guy offered to loan me his bear trap, but I'd never use one of those disgustingly cruel things.
Plus I wouldn't want a rotting 500-lb bear corpse next to my plants.
Later that day I collected some dog shit and put around the garden, as well as some of my own, fresh.
The next day I went out, 4 more plants had been torn up.
It was mating season, the bear I found out later was male.
He wasn't interested in the pot particularly, but he was smart enough to figure out those plants and people and dogs. And it didn't want us in it's territory.
I remembered my Marksman battery powered, motion detector lantern. It has a setting for light only and another one for the light AND a high-pitched low volume "siren" (you can't hear the siren more than 20'--30' away).
And I figured out another deterrent, something that works against deer. Upside-down rat traps. Stepped on, they snap loudly and jump into the air.
There were 3 approaches to the garden. The one that led to the house and 2 others that led into the woods.
I set 3 upside-down rat traps on each path, about 2 feet apart. Then I set up the lantern facing the direction of the 2 most likely paths the bear would use. The lantern would be activated at around the same time as the rat traps were set off.
The following morning I went out and found all 3 traps on one path tripped, and 2 on the other, but no plants disturbed.
I re-set the traps. The next morning a total of 3 traps had been set off. The 3rd night only 1.
As an experiment I removed all the traps but left the lantern.
The next morning I could see bear tracks leading to the point where the lantern would be set off, the the bear turned around and left.
I had trained B'rer Bear to associate snapping rat traps with the light and noise.
I felt like Pavlov (look it up).
He stopped trying to get into the garden.
There was one more encounter with that bear though.
It was about a week later and I was feeling kinda cocky about keeping the bear away from my pot.
I'm on the path to the garden still several hundred yards away with my little toy chow-chow Nikki. As we rounded a corner I saw the hackles on her back go straight up.
ASnd there, in the middle of the path about 20 feet away, is the bear.
It reared up on it's hind legs and let out a snarl and roar.
On it's hind legs it was 7 or 8 feet tall but looked twice that. About 400-500 pounds; teeth as long as your index finger.
I'm not ashamed to admit that I pissed my pants and came pretty damn close to crapping them too.
I know enough about bears not to run from them (contrary to what you may seen Walker Texas Ranger do, humans cannot outrun a bear, and bears, like dogs tend to chase things that are running away from it.
It didn't matter though; I was frozen with fear.
Meanwhile Nikki is going ballistic. She's practically turning somersaults, barking and howling.
I'm face-to-face with a snarling 1/4 ton omnivore. I knew that if the bear charged I was a goner.
to be continued...
Case in point...
I had a modest 15-plant grow in the woods about 1/2 mile from my house deep deep in the woods. So remote that if you walked from the house to the garden and kept walking, you wouldn't hit any house/town/paved road for at least 30 miles. (P.S. this is the same garden mentioned in my Helicopter thread).
It's mid-Aug. I go out to my garden one morning and freaked.
4 of the plants were torn up!
I had been using grow bags; they had been ripped open and the plants trampled!
It only took me half a minute to figure out what happened.
I was aware that at least 1 bear lived in that neck of the woods. My dog would get hyper when we went out there, and I could tell from her reaction and also I'd seen bear prints/scat.
Now I'm back at the pad. I needed something and I needed it fast. I started calling people I know who hunt.
They knew how to attract bears (deer guts) but not how to deter them.
1 guy offered to loan me his bear trap, but I'd never use one of those disgustingly cruel things.
Plus I wouldn't want a rotting 500-lb bear corpse next to my plants.
Later that day I collected some dog shit and put around the garden, as well as some of my own, fresh.
The next day I went out, 4 more plants had been torn up.
It was mating season, the bear I found out later was male.
He wasn't interested in the pot particularly, but he was smart enough to figure out those plants and people and dogs. And it didn't want us in it's territory.
I remembered my Marksman battery powered, motion detector lantern. It has a setting for light only and another one for the light AND a high-pitched low volume "siren" (you can't hear the siren more than 20'--30' away).
And I figured out another deterrent, something that works against deer. Upside-down rat traps. Stepped on, they snap loudly and jump into the air.
There were 3 approaches to the garden. The one that led to the house and 2 others that led into the woods.
I set 3 upside-down rat traps on each path, about 2 feet apart. Then I set up the lantern facing the direction of the 2 most likely paths the bear would use. The lantern would be activated at around the same time as the rat traps were set off.
The following morning I went out and found all 3 traps on one path tripped, and 2 on the other, but no plants disturbed.
I re-set the traps. The next morning a total of 3 traps had been set off. The 3rd night only 1.
As an experiment I removed all the traps but left the lantern.
The next morning I could see bear tracks leading to the point where the lantern would be set off, the the bear turned around and left.
I had trained B'rer Bear to associate snapping rat traps with the light and noise.
I felt like Pavlov (look it up).
He stopped trying to get into the garden.
There was one more encounter with that bear though.
It was about a week later and I was feeling kinda cocky about keeping the bear away from my pot.
I'm on the path to the garden still several hundred yards away with my little toy chow-chow Nikki. As we rounded a corner I saw the hackles on her back go straight up.
ASnd there, in the middle of the path about 20 feet away, is the bear.
It reared up on it's hind legs and let out a snarl and roar.
On it's hind legs it was 7 or 8 feet tall but looked twice that. About 400-500 pounds; teeth as long as your index finger.
I'm not ashamed to admit that I pissed my pants and came pretty damn close to crapping them too.
I know enough about bears not to run from them (contrary to what you may seen Walker Texas Ranger do, humans cannot outrun a bear, and bears, like dogs tend to chase things that are running away from it.
It didn't matter though; I was frozen with fear.
Meanwhile Nikki is going ballistic. She's practically turning somersaults, barking and howling.
I'm face-to-face with a snarling 1/4 ton omnivore. I knew that if the bear charged I was a goner.
to be continued...
