Litchfield County Bears Are Back, and Hungry For Your Trash

One more task to add to your list of spring clean-up duties for your property in Litchfield County: Secure your trash can. Our wildlife is awake, and they're hungry.

I was amazed at the amount of trash along Rt. 202 in Litchfield County this morning on my ride into work. Normally 202 is one of the cleanest roadways in Litchfield County, but not today. There must have been a bear rooting through the trash cans along the side of the road by the Torrington/Litchfield town line, and there were three or four more cans tipped over as I went through Bantam, New Milford, and Brookfield.

According to the very cool bear and bobcat tracker on ct.gov, black bears have been spotted all across Northern and Central Connecticut in the first few months of 2025. So far the black bear hotspots of Connecticut in 2025 are all in Litchfield County: Colebrook, Bethlehem, and Cornwall. The bobcat sighting Capital of Connecticut for 2025 (So far) is surprisingly West Hartford.

Black bears and raccoons are the primary suspects in the curious case of your tipped-over garbage can. Black bears are omnivorous, rotten fruit, dead animals, bird feeders and garbage can contents are all fair game. What's worse, black bears can get used to human interaction if they happen upon your garbage can buffet.

HOW CAN YOU KEEP BEARS AND RACCOONS OUT OF YOUR TRASH?

Bungee cords are the easiest solution, but honestly, nothing will keep a 160 pound bear out of your 55 gallon can. One thing that could help is don't leave the trash out overnight, and another simple solution is splash bleach or lime juice on the top of the can to mask the odor of food.