Dealing with Trespassers on Your Property

Announcer: Farm and Family is a production of the Mississippi State University extension service.

Amy Myers: Today we'll be talking about dealing with trespassers on your property. Hello, I'm Amy Taylor and welcome to Farm and Family. Today we're speaking with John Long, Mississippi State University extension service 4H youth development specialist. So John, of course every hunting season we always have to deal with the dreaded situation, or the possibility of trespassers. What is it that makes trespassers want to come on our property?

John Long: Well a lot of it I guess has to do with the mentality of it's always greener on the other side of the fence. Sometimes trespassers may not even have a place to hunt in the first place and if they see a deer cross the road or if they see turkeys in your pasture, that just makes it even that more appealing to want to step across that property line and trespass onto your land.

Amy Myers: Also if we have tree stands and hunting blinds ready available for them to use, then yeah that adds to it.

John Long: Yeah.

Amy Myers: Traditionally, we try to use signs to deter people from entering our property. Besides that, what can we do to keep them away with cameras and even women's fragrances and notifying law enforcement?

John Long: Cameras are relatively cheap in some instances, so you can get a lot of them at one time and put them out and the more you have out, the more likelihood that you can catch somebody that's potentially coming across your property line.

Amy Myers: And hang them where people can't get to 'em.

John Long: Very true. I've known people to hang 'em high and angle them down to where they're actually taking a picture from like an elevated position to where they can't get to 'em and it never hurts to put a lock on all of 'em. They place 'em in rows, place 'em in parking areas, where they have seen sign of people's activity in order to catch them. Cameras can be used to determine who that individual is and has actually been used in court in some cases. Some people actually even use old cameras that are no longer functioning. They'll use those as decoys to deter some, well I'm being watched, therefore I won't go onto that property. Women's fragrance, that's something that I've heard people doing a lot of is putting perfume on a cotton ball and putting it along the property line and-

Amy Myers: But put it in a Coke bottle first.

John Long: Yeah put it in a Coke bottle first that way it soaks it up and then put it out where you don't want 'em seen.

Amy Myers: So next to your property line where you want deer to not be so that people won't think that deer are over there.

John Long: That's correct. Goes back to them seeing the game and them wanting to be in there. So yes, that would definitely help. Notifying law enforcement that you have trespassers on your property, that you're having problems with that, where they on their route can drive by and just check to see. Let them know who actually has permission to be on the land, what vehicles that individual would be driving is a good way to keep from wasting their time with misidentification of trespassers as well.

Amy Myers: So tell me what should we do when talking about different signs to put up and dealing with people who could be trespassing. What should we do about knowing our neighbors and making sure folks don't see things on our property that they want and dealing with people themselves?

John Long: Right, whereas you don't have to put up signs. It is always a good idea to do so. Where there's clearly marked that you don't want anybody on your property. It's important to know your neighbors too. Let your neighbors know whether you want them on there or not. That way that'll discourage them from coming across your property line. Don't plant food plots on a public, on the side of a public road because that's just asking somebody to pull up there and shoot deer or shoot turkeys and again, it goes back to seeing the game and enticing somebody to come onto their property. Then the main thing is, if you catch somebody on your property, do not aggravate the situation cause more than likely they have a firearm and you don't want to make it any worse than it already is. Make sure that you get pictures of their vehicle and their tag numbers while they are on the property and that way you can use that as an identifier and again, use those cameras.

Amy Myers: Today we've been speaking with John Long, Mississippi State University extension service 4H youth development specialist. I'm Amy Taylor and this has been Farm and Family. Have a great day.