What do you do when you have a massive bear problem? You try everything you can to get rid of them, even if that means using some very strange methods. Homeowners around Lake Tahoe are spending thousands of dollars to keep black bears out of their houses. Bear break-ins are climbing to record levels this summer. That means some residents are installing electric mats, reinforced steel doors, and even electrified wiring. Some Nevada wildlife officials have even turned to two specially trained dogs to drive the animals off.
It’s all because of the massively high numbers. In fact, South Lake Tahoe police received 174 bear-related calls through late July alone, up from 97 over the same stretch last year, according to The Wall Street Journal. In California, the state logged 660 bear incidents in 2023, with about a third of them home invasions. Officials expect this year to run even higher.
Wildlife biologists say this all points to a dry winter. The natural food supply was cut, which rushed bears toward human sources earlier in the season, according to the Tahoe Interagency Bear Team. The region’s black bear population has also grown, with an estimated 60,000 bears now roaming California, about triple the number in the 1990s.
The encounters can be jarring. One South Lake Tahoe couple told the Journal they were washing dishes after dinner when they found a bear standing in their living room, which wandered through the house, sniffed a tube of toothpaste, and urinated on the floor before leaving. A retired physician said she spent about $7,500 on electric deterrents and a steel door after a bear tore into her cabin. “The bears are winning,” she said. “I’m the one that’s spending the money.”
Unique Ways Residents and Businesses Are Fighting the Bear Population
Businesses have grown up around the problem. A company called Bear Busters says it has wired roughly 6,000 properties with electrified systems that deliver a shock, and homeowners are adding 10,000-volt mats to decks and doorways.
Nevada has taken a different route. The state Department of Wildlife relies on two Karelian bear dogs, named Badger and Banjo, to chase bears out of neighborhoods, flush them from crawl spaces, and teach them to associate people with an unpleasant experience. The breed was developed in Finland and Russia to hunt large game. Unlike agencies that haze bears with rubber bullets or bean bag rounds, Nevada has favored the dogs, though officials say the animals cannot solve the problem alone.
A splinter group, Team BEAR, coordinates with authorities and installs the electric mats. State officials, who say they euthanize animals only in severe cases and that relocation rarely works, have clashed with the BEAR League over both approaches.
Officials on both sides of the lake give the same core advice. They urge residents to remove food attractants, secure garbage in bear-proof containers, keep grills clean, and never feed the animals, steps they say do more than any single deterrent to keep bears out of homes. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife offers bear-safety guidance on its website if you somehow end up dealing with the problem on your own.