Raccoons are a nimbly and resourceful animal with paws like that of a human, giving it a quick climbing edge. This creature, with a seemingly masked face, loves to find shelter and live among humans and in the garden.
Raccoons can be destructive and daring. One of their annoying characteristics is their boldness and lack of fear of humans. Living in your garden, destroying your plants just like birds do, and littering your yard with their droppings will put you on edge. So what do you do? These animals are so resourceful and agile that they can be in your garden and eat up your plants without you knowing.
Raccoons love to stay in a cool, dark, and secured places like under the stairs and even in open chimneys. As much as raccoons can be a nuisance, they can also coexist peacefully with humans. However, if that is not the case in your yard and you’re looking for a permanent solution, then read on as you’ll see how to keep raccoons away from your garden.
Signs of Raccoons Activities in your Garden
As stated earlier, raccoons are resourceful animals that can stealthily be feeding on your garden without you noticing till significant damage has been made. Here are some signs of raccoon activity in your yard.
- Finding scratch marks on fences and trees: Raccoons have sharp nails and pawls and love to scratch on climbing surfaces. If you find scratch marks on your wall or trees in your garden, there’s a high chance raccoons are feasting on your garden.
- Check your trash for signs of being looted: Raccoons are opportunistic and have a sweet tooth. They ransack your dumpster for any leftover food. If you continuously find your trash scattered, then you might be dealing with a raccoon.
- Raccoon droppings: They tend to drop fecal matter while feeding, so finding feces around your garden will be a common sight once raccoons start visiting.
- Locating their distinct paw tracks: Raccoons have a distinct five toes paw and leave tracks on the soil (especially wet soil). Finding these paw tracks in your garden is an indication of their activities.
Finding two to three of these signs in your garden is an indication that you have raccoons in your home. Now that you know what to look out for, here’s how you can remove them from your garden.
Ways to Remove Raccoons from your Garden
When raccoons become a nuisance in your yard, it is time to find a permanent solution. There are several ways to chase them away from your garden, but as they say, ‘prevention is better than cure.’ The best way is to prevent them from entering your farm in the first place. Raccoons are stubborn animals, and they’ll take more than a little push to make them leave their comfort zone. Here are some ways to remove troublesome raccoons from your garden.
Using Mothballs
It is befitting to start this list with the least effective and advisable method of removing raccoons. Mothballs are cheap and smelly and are placed in crawl spaces to chase raccoons. They are, however, toxic to the environment and can affect both humans and pets when ingested, so it is advisable to use with caution.
Predator Urine
Using a predator Urine to chase raccoons away works by tricking the raccoon into thinking its feared predator is nearby. Once an animal begins to feel threatened, the natural thing to do is flight. Some of its strongest predators are coyotes, wolves, and mountain lions. You can get their urine from local animal stores.
Ammonia
Ammonia is another deterrent you can use in your garden to chase away raccoons. They dislike the stench coming from ammonia and will move away from an ammonia smelling area. To accomplish this idea, the area needs to be poorly aerated as ventilation will quickly blow away the stench. Holes and tight spaces are good locations to use this ammonia deterrent. Soak a cloth in ammonia and leave it close to raccoon dens or feeding areas.
Using Hot Pepper
The smell of hot pepper is another thing that makes raccoons uncomfortable. This is easy to make repellent; you can find all its ingredients on your kitchen shelves. To make this repellent, get cayenne pepper or a jar of hot sauce and mix with water, put this mixture into a spraying container and spray around your farm, fence, or trashcan. This is effective, especially when the raccoons just started visiting your garden and are yet to call it home.
Seal Off Potential Den Areas
Raccoons will call your garden home if you leave areas they can live in open. They love quiet and dark places, leaving places like this open is an invitation to raccoons. Close your chimneys, holes, and under unfrequented staircases. This is a very effective method of removing these troublesome animals from eating up your plants.
Remove Food Litters and Close Trash Cans
Raccoons are attracted to your garden by food, and they’ll stay as long as they keep getting enough food even more so as they can feed on pretty much anything sweet. To keep them away or remove them from your yard, you need to clear food litters from your surroundings.
Close your trash cans to prevent them from looting and scattering it, looking for food. Remove pets from raccoon reach, especially at night; make sure you clear fallen fruits before they start to decay. Alongside sealing off potential den areas, this is one of the surest ways of removing raccoons from your house.
Use Traps with Bait
If all these methods fail, you might want to consider catching the raccoons with traps and relocating them far away from your yard. This is a humane method of getting rid of raccoons, but you need to be careful not to separate a mother from her children by relocating her and leaving her children in a den around your house.
Raccoons are crafty and can easily spot traps, so you need to pay extra attention when setting one up. Use bait of fruits, fatty meat, and honey-coated foods to lure them into the trap. Take them far away from your garden and release them.
Is it Illegal to Kill Raccoons
It is perfectly legal to kill raccoons in most states in the US. This method can be tempting due to their stubborn nature, but it is not the most advisable; it is better to use the relocation method than outrightly killing the animal.
Raccoons can cause massive damage to your farm by eating up your plants and digging the ground. Their boldness and craftiness is also a cause for concern in most homes. If you’re looking to handle the issue permanently, these methods are a sure way to remove them.
