MOUNT DORA RESIDENTS LEARN DIY

method to “bear-proof ” their garbage bins in bid to cut encounters.

MOUNT DORA — Nancy Mathis said her trash can has been dragged to the vacant lot across the street and its contents strewn about on several occasions by Florida black bears.

“I see them so often I don’t think of it much anymore,” she said.

Mathis, who lives in the Dora Pines mobile-home park on Wolf Branch Road a short distance from U.S. Highway 441, has had to clean up after bear raids on a garbage bin covered in claw marks. Likewise, most of her neighbors in the 55-plus community have had their trash pilfered by the furry animals. Of 384 bear nuisance complaints in Lake County so far this year, 21 percent have come from Mount Dora.

Dora Pines residents gathered Friday for a workshop presented by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and featuring DeLand resident Jim Durocher, who demonstrated how he bear-proofs his neighborhood trash cans.

With a power tool and about $6 worth of materials — nylon straps, plastic buckles and a few nuts and bolts — he can prevent bears, which can weigh up to 700 pounds, from extracting garbage.

“One bear pulled a whole bag of trash out of an inch-and-a-half of space,” Durocher said.

The do-it-yourself fix is much cheaper than the bear-proof garbage bins for purchase suggested by the FWC, which can cost about $47 for a 20-gallon container, not including shipping.

Orange, Seminole, Lake and Volusia counties and DeLand have applied for FWC funds to purchase bear-resistant trash bins.

FWC has sought to improve human-bear relations in recent years after attacks in Seminole and one in the Panhandle by encouraging residents to avoid tempting bears by making trash easily accessible.

Bears are beefing up on about 15,000 calories a day to prepare for winter. In the fall, bears are active 18 to 20 hours a day until about December, when they hibernate.