How to Keep Raccoons Away: Effective Prevention Tips for Your Home and Yard

Raccoons are cute, clever, and found in all kinds of environments. From habitats in the countryside to those in the suburbs and urban areas, these masked bandits are known for their ability to coexist with humans. Raccoons are also notorious for the damage they can do and the health risks they pose.

If you find that raccoons are becoming a problem for your home, it may be time to explore some raccoon deterrent methods and prevention tips to make your house and yard less appealing to these adaptable pests. 

Understanding the Problem with Raccoons 

Raccoons are often considered a wildlife nuisance because they easily adapt easily to human-dominated landscapes. As a result, they often damage gardens, wreak havoc on farms, rummage through garbage, and even create damage indoors. Additionally, both young and old raccoons can transmit any number of viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens, including rabies. 

Why Raccoons Are Drawn to Residential Areas 

Residential areas are a rich resource for providing three vital elements — shelter, food, and water. Because these animals coexist so seamlessly with people in any setting, they are also comfortable making themselves at home as they search for what they need. In most cases, raccoons aren’t picky about where they find their water sources or the foods they eat. They will drink out of puddles and eat almost anything, including garden crops, compost, pet food, bird seed, and even garbage. 

Common Reasons Raccoons Are Attracted to Your Property 

It doesn’t matter if you live way out in a rural area or in the middle of a city. You could very easily end up dealing with raccoons getting into your garden, your garbage, or your home and other buildings on your property. When you understand why raccoons are attracted to human spaces, it’s easier to prevent them from becoming uninvited guests. 

Easy Access to Food Sources 

Like all living beings, raccoons need food to survive, and they don’t understand that your bird seed, compost, and garbage aren’t intended for them. Raccoons are omnivores that eat a mix of other animals and plants. In the wild, they often eat berries, nuts, small rodents, insects, and other items. In turn, humans often inadvertently offer up a buffet with easy access to food that tempts these masked bandits to move in and stay for a while.

Availability of Shelter 

Raccoons love to find spots of their own to call home. These adept critters can make shelters out of piles of leaves and yard debris or even stacks of firewood outside. They enter homes and other buildings that provide easy access, often through attics, chimneys, crawl spaces, and basements.

Raccoon Prevention Tips 

Although raccoons can cause plenty of problems, the news isn’t all bad. Putting some preventative measures into practice can help control many of the issues associated with these rodents. Once you know what attracts raccoons, you can begin forming a strategy to deter them. 

Securing Trash and Food Sources 

Raccoons are determined, persistent, and equipped with incredible dexterity that allows them to get into unsecured garbage cans and other containers. Once they find a property that offers up a consistent food source, they will keep coming back. To make your home and yard less appealing, consider the following: 

• Avoid feeding pets outdoors or stick to feeding pets outdoors in morning and afternoons, removing any uneaten food before evening. 
• Tie heavy-duty, lidded trash cans or store garbage in sheds or outbuildings to ensure they are secure or switch to pest-proof receptacles that have locking lids. 
• Use secure, sealed compost bins and place them 20 feet or more from the home. 
• Hang bird feeders on tall, thin poles with baffles in the middle to discourage raccoons from climbing. 

Managing Natural Attractants 

In addition to securing your trash and compost and avoiding leaving food out, it’s important to avoid other elements that can attract raccoons to your property. For instance, grubs and other insects offer a steady supply of food. Investing in regular pest control treatments to get rid of lawn grubs can help. Reducing easy access to drinking water can also aid your preventative strategy. For instance, consider removing pet water dishes, fixing leaking pipes, and enhancing drainage to reduce puddles. 

Yard Maintenance and Deterrents 

Keeping raccoons out of your yard requires regular maintenance. Keep the yard mowed regularly and remove debris, leaves, and brush to avoid providing these creatures with hiding and nesting spots. Consider implementing natural repellents and deterrents. For example, you can spray the perimeter of your property with a strongly scented solution like ammonia to deter raccoons, or you can mix up some cayenne pepper with hot sauce and water to spray garbage receptacles and other tempting areas. 

Other preventive measures to consider include installing motion-activated outdoor lighting or sprinklers near any zones with suspected raccoon activity to startle the animals and repel them. 

Sealing Entry Points Around Your Home 

Raccoons can be a real nuisance outside your home. Inside, they can be quite destructive and pose a health hazard. That’s why inspecting your home regularly to identify potential entry points is so crucial.

Identifying and Blocking Potential Entrances 

Take a walk around your home to evaluate how raccoons could enter. Raccoons can easily get inside by scampering up trellises and trees, climbing vines and downspouts, and sliding into holes, broken vents, uncapped chimneys, and openings along the roof line or foundation. To avoid this, keep trees and shrubs trimmed away from the home, cap chimneys, and seal any openings to keep raccoons and other pests out. 

Preventing Nesting in Attics and Sheds 

Block entry points with wadded newspaper to make sure no raccoons are already using them. If it remains undisturbed for three days, seal the area with metal flashing or wire mesh. Raccoons often gravitate toward out-of-the-way spots like attics, crawl spaces, and outbuildings. Inspect roof lines and junctions to ensure any possible holes or openings get sealed.

Natural and Humane Raccoon Deterrent Methods 

Focusing on the path of least harm is still effective. Humane methods of warding these pests off include using their known dislikes against them. By deterring and repelling them from your property, you can minimize the chances of one (or more) moving indoors without resorting to potentially harmful chemicals.

Scent-Based Deterrents 

Raccoons have a keen sense of smell, and they avoid particular scents, including mint, vinegar, spicy foods, and ammonia. Spraying these scents in raccoon-prone areas like around trash cans and gardens can provide effective deterrence. 

Sound and Light Deterrents 

As persistent and clever as raccoons are, they are also prone to avoid conflict. Anything that startles them, including motion-sensor lights and sprinkler systems, can serve as efficient deterrence. Additionally, ultrasonic devices that emit high-frequency sounds can help keep raccoons and other wildlife out of your spaces. 

When to Call Professional Wildlife Control 

Dealing with raccoons and other types of nuisance wildlife is rarely a DIY project, particularly once they move indoors. However, you can take many preventative steps and employ strategies to deter them from returning.

Recognizing When DIY Methods Aren’t Enough 

Have you tried everything and still find little paw prints as well as dark and tubular-shaped droppings with blunt ends and trash strewn about? When you employ DIY methods without success or find evidence of raccoons inside sheds, outbuildings, or your home, it’s time to call in the pros.

Benefits of Hiring a Wildlife Control Expert 

Dealing with wildlife on your own can be dangerous. Wildlife control experts have training and equipment to safely remove raccoons. Additionally, many states have protections in place regarding how and when you can remove raccoons to avoid separating mothers from their young. Experts can guide you through every step of the process and tailor a plan to your unique situation to ensure humane, effective results.

Call Catseye Pest Control for Raccoon Control 

Catseye Pest Control has decades of expertise dealing with raccoons, nuisance wildlife, and other pests. Our technicians are trained, licensed, and dedicated to finding solutions that will help you eliminate raccoons and keep them away. Contact Catseye today to learn more about our removal services or to schedule a free inspection.

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