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local raccoon removal expert in your home town. Updated
2018. But read the below advice first!
If you already have a raccoon problem in your garden, the best
thing that you could do would be to call a local wildlife
removal company. Maybe you don’t want to do that just yet, so
you’re looking up methods that you can use to deal with this
nuisance yourself. I’m going to talk about some of these
methods, as well as about ways of preventing raccoons from being
attracted to your garden.
What to do if raccoons have already attacked your garden, and
you don’t want to reach out to animal control? Well, you
definitely have to do something, because once a raccoon has
discovered a good food source, it will keep coming back. You can
try and trap the raccoon in a live cage trap. Put a couple of
traps in your garden, put some bait in, and check in the
morning. This tactic is potentially dangerous for two reasons.
One, if it’s a female raccoon, it’s possible it has young
somewhere, which you’ve just orphaned and left to starve to
death (probably in someone’s attic or chimney). Two, what will
you do with the raccoon once it’s trapped? Keeping the raccoon
is very bad idea. Don’t. Releasing the raccoon in nature may
lead to other environmental issues, aside of it probably not
being in accordance with state and local laws. Killing the
raccoon – even if you have the stomach for it, it’s surely
illegal if you don’t have a hunting permit, and may lead to
criminal charges if the authorities find out.
Keep a watchdog in your yard that can guard your garden. First
of all, you need to find a good watchdog that will do its job.
Secondly, you need to be confident that no one will be bothered
at night by the dog’s bark. Also, keep in mind that raccoons
carry diseases that can be contracted by dogs. And last but not
least, if you’re a big dog lover, I wouldn’t risk keeping a
watchdog – it will probably just end up taking up residence on
our couch.
Noises and lights. I keep hearing people recommend installing
bright light or stroboscopic lights to make the raccoons leave.
It’s pretty unlikely that the raccoon would mind the artificial
light especially if it discovered food in the area. And once it
has a taste, it will surely determine that the food is worth any
risk of exposure the light may bring. Same with noises, placing
a radio in the garden, for example, might make a new raccoon in
the area a little bit shy, though it probably won’t. And if the
raccoon has already visited your garden a couple of times, the
noises coming from the radio won’t do much to scare it away.
What’s an effective way to prevent raccoons from getting into
your garden? Installing a good fence can keep raccoons out of
your garden. You have to make sure that the fence is tall enough
and deep enough, making it hard for the raccoon to climb it or
dig its way beneath it. The materials should also be of superior
quality so that the raccoon can’t make a hole in it by gnawing
or tearing. An electric fence might be a smart move.
There’s other little things you can do around your household to
ensure that you’re not attracting any raccoons to your garden.
These include not leaving any pet food outside, keeping your
garbage cans secured, not having bird feeders hanging around,
and obstructing raccoon access to your home by capping the
chimney and making sure that they don’t have any points of
access to your attic.
Go back to the Raccoons in the attic
home page.