Predator urine (I guess bobcat would be the pee of choice) seems like a
logical next step. I have a couple of questions about its use and would
greatly appreciate your advice before I order.

1. How much do I need to apply? Many of the areas I’d like to cover are
broad swaths with lots of plant material and mulch in between.

2. How often do I need to reapply? Half of the yard has an irrigation
system which we use as often as necessary to reach 1″ of rain each week.
Will this defeat the effectiveness of the product?

3. Aside from applying the urine, are there other steps that people have
taken to increase its overall effectiveness in controlling voles? A
bobcat adoption, perhaps?

4. Is the application of the bobcat urine likely to have any negative
behavioral effects on my three dogs?

I appreciate your advice and look forward to hearing back from you and
trying out your product (that is, the bobcats’ product.)

A. I would recommend our “Mole Blaster” combo. This includes both the
BobcatPee granules and a Spray Bottle of BobcatPee Liquid. The granules
can be sprinkled right on the ground in your beds. One jar will treat
about 200 sq ft. Use the spray bottle to squirt the down into the vole
holes and mix it into the loose soil. You will have to reapply weekly if
you are using that much irrigation. Dogs will be curious as always but
the pee is no more harmful than what they might sniff at their favorite
fire hydrant! The long term solution for voles is to break their
spring feeding habits by early application. Some people mix BobcatPee
into the soil in the fall when the they get their beds ready for winter.
Thanks for asking!
The Peeman

A. Yes, since the mountain lion is a natural predator of the feral hog, mt. lion pee is the the correct choice. I would use the granules in the flower beds and the liquid to create a perimeter.

The Predator Urine concept is based upon the principal of duplicating the use of urine by animals in the wild. Predators mark the perimeter of their territory with urine helping prey like the feral hog tell whether an area is safe or dangerous. When using our ScentTags, place them into the ground every 10-12 feet around the designated area and saturate with the Mt. Lion Urine. Reapply every 7-10 days or immediately after rain. It is recommended that ScentTags be placed out of reach of sprinklers or irrigation systems. Each ScentTag will absorb about 1/2 oz of Pee, so you should get about 2 applications of 12 ScentTags (120-150 lineal feet) per 12oz bottle.

If you are using our 33 Day Dispensers, fill them to just below the holes with Mt. Lion Pee and hang every 10-12 feet from a tree or a free-standing stake. For feral hogs, be sure to place the Dispenser bottles at nose level. Refresh with urine once a month. Each dispenser hold about an ounce of Pee, so a 12oz bottle should be sufficient to fill 10 dispensers and protect 100 – 120 lineal foot perimeter for about a month. We do not recommend squirting the urine directly on plants or other living vegetation. Thanks for asking! The Peeman.

“The gray wolf is a significant predator of coyotes wherever their ranges overlap. Since the Yellowstone Gray Wolf Reintroduction in 1995 and 1996, the local coyote population went through a dramatic restructuring. Until the wolves returned, Yellowstone National Park had one of the densest and most stable coyote populations in America due to a lack of human impacts. Two years after the wolf reintroductions, the pre-wolf population of coyotes had been reduced 50% through both competitive exclusion and predation. In Grand Teton, coyote densities were 33% lower than normal in the areas where they coexisted with wolves, and 39% lower in the areas of Yellowstone where wolves were reintroduced.”

When coyotes believe wolves are in an area, they will move to a less hazardous habitat. By applying wolf urine around the perimeter of a yard, the homeowner can create the impression that wolves are nearby. The scent of urine is one of the primary ways an animal is warned of the presence of a predator and the smell of the wolf urine tells coyotes that this area could be a dangerous place. The coyote’s instincts kick in and they move to a new territory. In addition an added advantage to using wolf urine is that it is completely natural and safe to use around pets.

“What is the best way to get rid of raccoons? They destroy my back yard each year starting around the middle of Sept.”

I felt this question was best answered by a satisfied customer who recently wrote the following:

“Hey KJ,

Thanks for the product(100% CoyotePee). It worked very well. I hung it around the affected area and it kept the raccoons out for about 3 weeks.

The only part they managed to get to was the section where I had the dispensers too far from each other. They got in between the two dispensers and dug up a little bit of the new sod.

They’re back now and trying to dig up the grass on the other side of the backyard. Luckily, the sod is well grown in on that side so they haven’t been able to dig it up.

We’re now about to put in more sod in another section of the backyard so I just ordered more of the Coyote pee and dispensers too keep them out of that area too. Lots of fun!”

There you have it. CoyotePee is the ticket for pesky raccoons.

As always, thanks for asking. The Peeman

A. I think CoyotePee would be best for your situation. Just click on coyote urine on our website to get to the CoyotePee page.

Thanks for asking – KJ, The PeeMan

A. Actually, this is a pretty normal question and a very common problem! Fox and BobcatPee both work well on squirrels, if the squirrels are inside we use the 33Day Dispensers filled with BobcatPee and hung in the rafters
near the eaves. If outside, FoxPee in the dispensers hung from branches, fences etc.

*All of the questions posted on this blog are questions that the Peeman has actually been asked by people over the years.

Want to Know How to Get Rid of Rats? Ask the Peeman.

Rats hanging out in cars and eating essential parts is a common enough problem in the District of Columbia. As City Desk previously chronicled, it happens in Adams Morgan. It happens at 15th and U. Kathryn Kailian, an esthetician who lives in Dupont Circle, had to take her car in six times for service because of rat damage. At one point, she submitted a claim for the $1,200 her dealership charged to completely re-wire her vehicle. “Our insurance company dropped us,” she says.

Fed up, Kailian Googled for solutions and found coyote pee. She ordered a bottle of it on the Internet, sprayed it on her engine, and hasn’t had a problem since. One bottle will last her “for years” since she only spritzes every few months. The smell dissipates pretty quickly and the rats have left her alone, despite the fact that she parks in an alley with Dumpsters filled by Five Guys, Chipotle, Cosi, and other delicious-to-rats restaurants.

But how does a seller of coyote piss collect coyote piss?

For the answer, I turn to the self-described “peeman,” Ken Johnson, who has been in the urine business for more than 20 years. Johnson, 57, has a wife, three daughters, and a nice house in Maine, all supported by the sale of animal waste.

He asserts the products at predatorpee.com—whether from wolf, bobcat, fox, or mountain lion—are the real stuff, not synthetic, and not dressed-up dog pee (although dog pee is for sale, too, to help Rags figure out where he should go). How it works is only slightly mysterious.

Johnson has contracts with zoos and wildlife preserves “all over the country” whose employees collect animals’ pee, mostly in drains inside the exhibits. The mysterious part is where these places are. Johnson doesn’t like to get specific. “We’ve run into problems with PETA people,” he says.

His site cautions that all of the suppliers are regulated by state and local agencies and that the animals are treated humanely. He says in a phone interview that no one is pumping them with water or Budweiser to make them go.

Basically, it’s a moneymaker for nonprofits, a moneymaker for Johnson, and a solution for people, like Kailian, who’ve had it. In Florida, coyote pee wards off iguanas. In Japan, wolf pee keeps wild boar out of rice paddies. And for anywhere there are “unwanted people or animals,” Johnson’s newest product is Skunk ‘Em, a proven agent to stop loiterers, he says. What works for what pest depends on the food chain. For example, somewhere inside an urban rat’s brain is a primal fear of a coyote, even though that coyote probably never roamed anywhere near where the rat has ever lived.

As for making his living from piss, the Peeman’s got a healthy sense of humor about it (his daughters, however—ranging in age from 15 to 32—are pretty much mortified). After fielding the question about how he gets the pee more times than he can recall, he created a spot on his site that details “How I Became a Urine Collector” by “P. Catcher.” It runs alongside a testimonial written from the coyote’s perspective.

Trained as a marketer, Johnson acquired the company in 1986 from a former client. Back then, the products were bought primarily by hunters to attract deer. But Johnson started noticing that people in nonrural areas were buying his products—suburban gardeners were an early indication of wider applications.

Then there was the spike Predatorpee got when Dave Barry included bobcat pee in his annual gift guide, which runs in the Washington Post Magazine. “People wanted to buy it for their lawyers, for their ex-wives,” says Johnson.

And then, Al Gore invented the Internet and Predatorpee began flowing like never before.

These days, the urine is sold exclusively online and comes in several forms. A spray bottle of coyote piss runs $25.99, plus S&H.

Johnson has an office/warehouse on his 40 acres outside of Bangor, a good distance form the house. He’s become desensitized, to some degree, to the smell. “Probably more so than my wife,” he says. “She knows when I’ve been working with Skunk ‘Em.”

In each new post, I will include some of the pee questions we get every day at predatorpee.com and our answers…like this one:

Dear PeeMan,

Coyote or Fox???

I live in Arizona where the problem is rabbits. We also have coyotes (not

enough it seems) that do prey on the rabbits, but no foxes, that I know

of.   It seems logical that coyote urine would be the product of choice for me,

but your website suggests fox urine to repel rabbits. Which product would

you recommend in view of this situation?

Thank you in advance,

Charles

Dear Charlie,

Both the fox and coyote love to dine on rabbit and the rabbits know it!

We try to simplify the choices on our website. In your case, the coyote pee

would be my choice.

When dealing with rabbits keep the pee on or close to the ground around

the perimeter of the area that you want to protect. Apply liberally the

first couple of times, then gradually reduce the amount that you use.

Thanks for writing,

The PeeMan

Next Post – “How PredatorPee works” …coming soon.