Surround Your Home With Jars Filled With Vinegar And See What Happens

Dealing with backyard pests is never fun, whether you're defending a veggie garden from curious raccoons or monitoring your yard for coyotes in the area. Wild animals are drawn to our properties because of food and water availability. Things like bird feeders stocked with seed, garbage cans full of food wrappers, fountains, and other water features are attractive to hungry and thirsty creatures. No matter how cute some of them are, they can be quite damaging to your property.

Finding humane ways to keep critters out of your yard is tough. Fortunately, the answer may be sitting in your pantry. White vinegar is a pungent-smelling ingredient many animals don't enjoy getting close to. It's available at most grocery stores and highly affordable. You can purchase a 1-gallon jug from your local Walmart for around $4. While it may not be successful in ridding your outdoor space of every pest that comes calling, it has shown promise in deterring raccoons, coyotes, and even snakes. Take a closer look at how to harness the power of this cooking essential to keep your property clear of unwanted visitors.

Starting your outdoor defense against animal pests is simple. Some recommend placing bowls or rags soaked in vinegar around the perimeter of your property. Of course, you don't want to use your best dishware for this project. An affordable and convenient solution is to grab a few 16-ounce glass canning jars for $1.25 each at the Dollar Tree. Jars are a good alternative because you can put lids on them as you transport them around your home. Now that you're prepared with containers and white vinegar, it's time to place them around your property.

Placement depends on the critter you're trying to get rid of and whether they leave signs of entry into your yard. For example, some homeowners place containers of deterrent in the holes skunks leave near fences or porches. Alternatively, snakes love watery areas like ponds. For slithering visitors, you should surround water features with the jars. Then, there are bigger animals to drive off, like coyotes, which can be kept away with a simple white vinegar solution by placing jars of vinegar around the perimeter of your property. However you arrange them, you can rest easy knowing it's a safe alternative to harsh chemicals or traps. Ensure you keep the jars open so the animals can quickly smell the vinegar and leave.

Apart from the low price point of this DIY solution, it's a safer option for you and the animals, which are warded off by its acidic smell. Some other suggested methods of deterring pests, like mothballs or ammonia, are highly toxic and could harm pets and small children, not to mention the animal you're deterring (via Professional Wildlife Removal). You can use vinegar to keep your house clean, as a cooking ingredient, and as a deodorizer, among other things. Leave the jars around your property without the stress of potentially harming someone or something, even critters you'd rather not see in your yard.

As much as we love our furry, and not so furry, animal friends, some wild creatures are damaging and dangerous to have around. For example, raccoons dig in the ground for slugs and worms, eat ripe produce from your garden, and rifle through your compost and trash cans. These backyard bandits are also carriers of rabies, leptospirosis, and a parasite called roundworm, which are harmful to humans. Snakes are helpful to the garden, eating bugs, slugs, and mice, but they are a little unsettling to some and may bite if scared or picked up. Coyotes usually avoid humans but are sometimes attracted to human territory when seeking food for themselves or their pups, and they may mistake your family pet for dinner. Consistently placing vinegar deterrents around your yard could help keep these creatures from coming to explore, while adding to your peace of mind.