Raccoons can cause serious problems on your property if you are not careful. These rodents can often be seen or heard outside in the night, rummaging through the trash cans in the hope of finding some food.
If you start feeding the raccoons out of kindness, you will notice that they are going to multiply very soon.
It won’t take long before you have a bunch of raccoons all outside your house. The bigger problem that many people face with these animals is that they can cause rabies if they bite, so if you have kids around the house, you have to make sure that you put up a fence and take appropriate measures to protect your house against raccoons.
However, even if you have a fence around the property, you might notice that racoons will still be able to enter the property. This leads most people to assume that racoons can jump.
However, while the animal does not really jump that well, you should know that these guys are excellent climbers and can easily climb over the fence.
But, they are not likely to jump over the fence. It doesn’t matter if you live in a wooded area or if your house is located near a stream or a park, raccoons are likely to visit your property from time to time.
If they find a source of food in your yard, they will definitely consider moving into the property, so you have to take measures to keep these animals away from your yard.
Raccoons aren’t built to jump or leap. They have a heavier build and their hind leg muscles aren’t that strong either. It is one of the reasons why these animals have a generally hunched appearance.
But, as mentioned, they can easily climb different surfaces. That is how these animals are able to enter the yard easily.
If you want to keep these pesky animals out of your yard, there are quite a few different methods that you can follow.
In the following paragraphs, we will talk about some of the most effective ways for you to keep raccoons out of your yard.
1 – Protect the Trash
Raccoons are generally attracted to the trash that you throw outside. These animals have sharp claws so it doesn’t take them very long to tear open the trash bags and poke inside.
They are incredibly interested in leftovers, and the smell easily attracts these animals from afar.
So, if you take away the attractive factor, these animals are automatically going to scatter. Protecting your trash is perhaps one of the most effective ways to keep raccoons away from your yard.
For starters, if you have a secure trash bin with a locking lid, it is imperative that you throw all of your waste in the trash bags and lock the bin tightly.
If you don’t have a locking trash bin, you might want to consider using a cinder block or a bungee cord to tighten the lid properly. Raccoons are fairly intelligent animals, so you should know it won’t take them very long to figure out how to open the lid on the trash bin.
If you are taking half-hearted measures to keep the lid closed, you should know that the raccoons will find a way to get in.
2 – Clean the Yard
Like most other animals that you will find foraging around your yard, raccoons also like places where they can hide.
Therefore, it might be a wise idea to clean up your yard carefully every other day. Get rid of all the items that you might have strewn around the yard.
Furthermore, you have to clean the brush and make sure that the grass is properly mowed. You need to look around the flower beds and identify tiny hiding places where these creatures are likely to hide, and then seal them shut.
You can easily use chicken wire or a hardware cloth to seal off entry points to these places.
3 – Install Sprinklers
Another effective way to clean out raccoons from your yard is to scare them off by using sprinklers.
Motion activated sprinklers are a fantastic idea and they are going to keep the raccoons away. Raccoons definitely don’t like water coming at them out of the blue, and you can simply activate the sprinklers in the yard in the night.
In most cases, you won’t have to worry much about raccoons in your garden during the day, but the problem will exacerbate in the night. Therefore, activating the sprinklers in the night is an effective way to keep raccoons out of your yard.
4 – Repel the Animals
There are quite a few different repellents available in the market that you can consider using.
Obviously, the store-bought repellents are likely to have mixed results, so it might be a wise idea to do a bit of research on your own and find out the most effective one. There are some that are known to have excellent results, but you will have to do a bit of research to figure them out.
If you know someone who recently had a raccoon problem and managed to get rid of it, you might want to consider talking to them to find out more.
5 – Remove the Food
If you have fallen fruit in your garden, you might want to get rid of it. Another excellent thing to do is to put up a fruit-catching net around the trees so that all of the fallen fruit is caught in the net instead of falling to the ground.
This will spare you the hassle of cleaning the yard on a regular basis, especially during the spring and summer season.
It’s recommended that you take active steps to protect a raccoon infestation, because they tend to grow very early. Installing a high fence around your property is a great idea as well, and it will keep raccoons at bay without requiring any kind of effort.
I have a bachelor’s degree in construction engineering. When I’m not constructing or remodeling X-Ray Rooms, Cardiovascular Labs, and Pharmacies…I’m at home with my wife, two daughters and a dog. Outside of family, I love grilling and barbequing on my Big Green Egg and working on projects around the house.