I never said you can eliminate them. Unfortunately we are stuck with them but their population can be controlled.

Being realistic.
 

No, but you said, "The state is too cheap and lazy to slow their growth down."

And I pointed out that the state has declared year around open season on shooting or trapping coyotes, either day or night, which is rather extreme.

Your post implied that spending more money or making a greater effort would be effective in "slowing their growth down."

The state cites studies that show that efforts to remove coyotes from a particular area results in coyotes having larger litters of pups to fill the void.

So, I suggest that the state is not being "cheap" or "lazy" in the matter of coyotes; just realistic.

When the coyote population in the area of The Villages gets to the point that available prey diminishes, so will the coyote population.

In the meantime, free roaming pets are at risk.

it appears one of those critters had a feast of rabbit on the 9th hole on Becall

Is garbage handling an issue?
 

In considering the problem of the growth of the coyote population in The Villages a question occurred to me. Note that this is only a question, not a suggestion that this is a solution.

I'm wondering how many plastic bags of garbage are being torn open by animals prior to pick up by the garbage trucks. If this is becoming a wide spread problem, perhaps it is related to the coyote problem.

There are three possible scenarios:

1. Coyotes are omnivorous. They may be tearing open the plastic garbage bags lying at the street awaiting pickup either for meat or for vegetable contents. The large quantity of food available from this source could eventually lead to a very large coyote population in The Villages.

2. Other smaller animals, such as rats, squirrels, raccoons, opossums, and others, may be getting into the garbage, which allows their numbers to grow, providing more prey for the growing coyote population in The Villages.

3. Both 1 and 2, above, are true.

It would be interesting if data could be gathered to determine if there is a widespread problem with garbage bags being torn open prior to pickup. If this is a problem, it may provide a clue to the increase in the local coyote population.

IF this were to be determined to be a factor in the rise of the coyote population, a possible solution would be to require all garbage to be in closed, hard plastic trash cans. This is the practice in Tampa, where these cans are designed to be picked up and dumped into a trash truck with an automated system which is a part of the truck. In Tampa, the cans are provided by the local government, and separate cans are provided for trash and for recyclable items.

.

Ordinarily, I do not put food waste into the trash. Most of it goes into the sink disposal. Ordinarily, I simmer bones for stock and then they are also soft enough to go in the disposal.

In nine years, the only time one of our bags was torn open was when broken grates from the barbecue grill were put in the garbage bag. The grease/meat smell must have been particularly appetizing.

The pack of coyotes live right behind my house on Lake Miona, they were here earlier in the year then left somewhere but I can hear them almost every night at dusk just a few yards behind my house. A week ago I spotted a pack of four in the middle of the day catching mice or rats in the long grass between the house and the lake and was able to take a picture but rushed to the lanai to bring my cats in.

I never hear the coyotes at night. There is a quite sizable one that I have seen here in Lynnhaven in the day time. I thought it was a loose German Shepherd and was going to try to catch it but then saw that it was a very large coyote from the way it moved and looked around. I was crossing Alcott Avenue going west toward Belmont GC. It was around 1:30 PM as well. That's why I thought was a loose dog.

This video shows how they adapt to their surroundings in busy areas.

Coyotes in Chicago Habitat | Meet The Coywolf | Nature on PBS - YouTube

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most only spend money on bringing awareness on how to live with coyote in their urban area. I have done quite a bit of reading up on this (we have an abundance of them in MI so this is an area of interest for me) and haven't run across any recent successful attempts taken on to reduce the population of urban coyote population. Most admit they can't get the funding or the studies are stopped by concerned citizens.

Saw one in Dunedin this morning. He was walking down a golf cart path.


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Carl -- you always give such good information on most topics and this is another one of them.
At personal level, I don't think ripped open plastic trash bags needs to be a widespread problem.
As long as there is some of this happening, and there is, it warrants having the trash cans you describe and show.
Regardless of the fact that so many people are against trash receptacles because they don't want to be bothered with them, it is the only solution that makes sense, particularly to solve the "critter" problem.

Waste Management provides the type of can you have shown. Unfortunately, we do not have Waste Management.
I believe the reason we don't have that type of trash can and recycling can is because the developer doesn't want to go to the expense of providing them.
No -- instead residents have to go to the expense of buying trash bags which only adds to the millions of bags that don't disintegrate in the landfills.

HenryK -- Good for you! You are one of the few who doesn't throw garbage in with your trash.
I do a similar thing that you do.
I save up Chicken bones in the freezer until I have enough and when I do I pressure cook them.
When they are soft, I put them in a blender to pulverize them and then add it to our dogs' food.
I also have a compost bin for vegetable and plant remains.

I wish more people cared about our environment, but alas -- they don't because it's usually too much of a bother.

I agree with the trash can issue, but a problem is that the garages in TV homes are too narrow to accommodate them. We would have to do some additional landscaping in order to keep them at the side of the house--which we would be happy to do, BTW.

Perhaps the current method is least cost?
Least unsightly?

I like not having to deal with trash cans in TV. Up north, they always seem so unsightly and then there's the problem with people leaving them out too long, wind blowing them over, and they can get pretty heavy even with wheels. Never thought it was cheapness on the part of the developer - husband and I thought it was just a better way to keep the community looking nicer. If there is a major problem with bags being torn open though, I can see the reason to change the current system.

Regarding coyotes, when we were down in September, we spotted one in the vicinity of the Villages of Sanibel/Charlotte. As we rounded a bend in our golf cart, we realized that it appeared to be tracking a couple of women who were walking their small dogs. We rushed up to alert them. They said they were aware and frightened. We escorted them home hoping the golf cart noise would keep the coyote away. Fortunately, they got home safely with their dogs. I said to my husband, instead of being on community watch, we were on coyote watch that night! :D