How Paintballs and Vegetable Oil Got a 550-Pound Bear Out From Under a California Home

A unique situation called for bear removal from a California home. The bear was living under the house and didn’t want to leave.

What would you do if a large bear were living under your home? A 550-pound bear spent a little over a month living in the crawl space under a home in California, and it took an odd method to remove this bear from the home. Eventually, the bear came crawling out from under the house and scurried off, but that was after several attempts to remove the animal by state wildlife officials.

The black bear living in the crawl space caused havoc

Most crawl spaces are barely large enough for a normal-sized human to fit in them, let alone a bear that weighs in at 550 pounds. The bear under Ken Johnson’s home damaged his home extensively, causing him to turn off his utilities to stay safe. The crawl space is where most utility lines, including gas and electric, are run. Johnson captured video of the bear twisting gas pipes, which meant the situation was becoming extremely dangerous. Johnson survived the Eaton fire, but soon after, lost his job, and not long after that, the bear found its way into the crawl space and began tearing into the structure of his home.

The BEAR league got involved in this bear removal in California

The bear under the house created a dangerous and unique wildlife rescue mission for the BEAR League and wildlife officials. After state wildlife officials failed for over a month to remove a massive black bear from Ken Johnson’s crawl space, a Lake Tahoe rescue team did it in 10 minutes with an unusual tactic. This Altadena bear eviction process involved paintballs filled with vegetable oil to get the bear to leave. Of course, it meant that at least one brave person had to crawl into the space to activate the paintball bear removal, which worked in only a few minutes, successfully completing what other officials couldn’t do for over a month.

The bear removal was a success, but took way too long

As you can imagine, Ken Johnson was at his wits’ end with a bear living under his home and him unable to have utilities and fully function in the home. It took several weeks before he reached out to the BEAR League for assistance, and they were more than willing to help out. They have used paintballs filled with vegetable oil in the past to remove bears from areas. They shoot the paintballs at the bear’s backside, and it seems to get the job done pretty well. Experienced members of the organization responded to the call and crawled under the home, fully aware that the bear was still there.

The bear tried to get back in the crawl space

For more than a month, the male black bear had made the crawl space its home, and maybe it thought the area was its new den. Once evicted from the space, the BEAR League loaned Ken Johnson electrified mats to put around the opening to discourage the bear from entering the area again while the homeowner makes necessary repairs. The bear returned after being scared away, and the mats worked as designed, causing the bear to leave the area to go in search of a new place to call home.

Crawl spaces are potential bear homes

The bear removal that took place in California might not have been necessary if the crawl space had been properly secured. The BEAR League team reminded residents that they need to avoid having open access to their crawl spaces to ensure wildlife, not only bears, but also other animals, don’t get under their homes and take up residence. They added that their team is called upon many times a day during the winter months to respond to bears living under homes in the Lake Tahoe region.

Since the bear removal from his California home, Ken Johnson has secured the crawl space to ensure bears cannot return, especially the 550-pound black bear that took up residence under the house for more than a month. The bear, named Yellow 2120, is no longer causing problems for Ken Johonson.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife made several attempts to remove the bear for over a month, even setting a trap that caught the wrong bear. It took the BEAR League and a few paintballs to get the job done.