What's the Best Way to Keep Tresspasers off Your Yard? My house has a small preserve behind it that also borders a road. People often cut through the preserve and then through my yard to either enter or leave my neighborhood. For instance, tonight a group of 8 screaming adults were yelling, blowing whistles and kazoos, and running through my yard. When I asked them what they were doing they said they were doing a scavenger hunt. When I asked them to please get off of my property, their reply was, "we might be back." I'm tired of people constantly trespassing since they 1) leave trash in my yard, 2) ruin the lawn especially when they ride their bikes or push a baby carriage through my yard, and 3) how am I supposed to distinguish between a trespasser and someone who is trying to case out or break into my house? Any suggestions? It stinks because a city park is being built across on the property next to the street that my preserve borders, which means the trespassing is only gonna get worse!! We don't want to block the path with thorny plants or a fence because we like to walk on our yard through our preserve to the street. I thought of piling up all of our dog's crap in the path that people use, but again we'd have the same problem. Maybe I should buy and install one of these (as long as I remember to deactivate it when my family or dog is in the yard).
You say you don't want a fence but that would be the best. My folks had issues with stragglers walking through the yard because it was some kind of shortcut. One straggler even had the nerve to complain about the dog going after him. My folks put a fence up and it put an end to that nonsense. It made the backyard look better too.
Another vote for fence. And when those jackasses said "We might be back", you should have said "Me too. Armed." (I'm not saying you should actually BE armed. Just tell them you will be. Scare them off.)
Greet them politely. Start a conversation about the weather. Tell them not to mind the blood covering you from head to toes. It's not yours. Or their. Yet. That should solve it.
Landmines. But seriously, if you go the fence route, make sure it's tall enough & strong enough, otherwise they'll climb it or trash it. There was a "junkyard" (ie: large overgrown lot that used to be a junkyard) in my old neighborhood. There were paths through it we used as shortcuts. Every so often, they would patch the holes in the fence and inevitably, there would be new holes. Now, I have no idea how those new holes would get there, but I certainly took advantage of them.
Fence is the way to go, but if you can't stand the thought of one you can use creative ways of blocking the shortcuts so people do not want to use them. Like put out some outdoor furniture or setting up a trellis, arch, or arbor. You can plant some boundary bushes and shrubs. Or the ultimate in area denial hedges: the Lilac. But you might regret that one in a few years time.
I agree that a fence is really the only suitable option to ensure success. You can have a gate installed so that you can still walk through it freely when you want to. If not a fence, then a line of shrubs/hedges may do the trick. And they are likely to make the yard only more beautiful. Even if they are short, there may still be some stragglers, but most people are at least decent enough to recognize personal property boundaries when they are clearly spelled out for them. You can also put No Trespassing signs on the hedges if that helps.
Definitely invest in a fence with a key lock of some kind. You'll still be able to come and go but there's no way anyone else will be able to say they didn't know it was private property. In the meantime, wander around your yard in your underwear, with a shotgun on your shoulder. That'll keep the kids in their own damn yard.