You deserve a tranquil home, a place to unwind after a long day at work. So, it’s annoying to find that your home has been transformed into a battleground where you’re fighting raccoons. If you’re looking for a way to get rid of them permanently, you’ve come to the right place.
When it comes to intelligent wild creatures, raccoons are at the top of the list. They have outstanding cognitive and cerebral abilities and adapt well to daily urban life. These abilities make them a menace capable of attacking your trash bags, wreaking havoc on your garden and lawns, making your home less appealing, and putting you and your pets at risk of severe diseases.
Fortunately, you don’t have to live a life filled with unpleasant raccoon experiences, and this article covers our top tips on how to get rid of raccoons permanently.
7 Tips to Help You Get Rid of Raccoons Permanently
Raccoon removal goes beyond just driving the animal away the first time it enters your property. It will likely keep coming back, and this will leave you exhausted. Here are some suggestions for effective raccoon control:
Tip #1: Make Use Of Trash Bags That Are Raccoon Repellent
The first step in getting rid of these intelligent animals is to figure out what repels them and use that information to carry out raccoon extermination. This is precisely why raccoon-repellent trash bags exist.
Certain scents have been reported to repel raccoons. As a result, you can use a garbage bag infused with such scents. Examples are trash bags infused with mint, and Raccoons avoid these bags because of the high amounts of mint present, which they despise.
Since raccoons are attracted to leftover foods and other kitchen scraps, these trash bags are a great option. It also doesn’t endanger your health in any way.
The scent simply masks the odor of food disposed into the garbage bag, making it impossible for these pests to access the bags. It also leaves your garbage area smelling better than if you used a regular trash bag.
Tip #2: Don’t Turn Your House Into A Food Storage Facility
Raccoons, like people, would not want to leave an environment that is suitable for them. Hence, if your property is a known food source, they wouldn’t want to leave. If they discover something delicious every time they come into your house, they will likely become your forced housemate.
Even if you use a raccoon-repellent garbage bag, it won’t help you get rid of raccoons if you don’t properly dispose of waste food. Allowing some to fall out gives these animals something to eat and a reason to return. Raccoons will hardly be able to make a home in your house if you block food sources and ensure you always clean your surroundings.
Bird lovers need to find a way to feed birds without making spills for raccoons to feast on. It’s detrimental to clean the seeds off the feed plate and ground to deny access to raccoons, especially if you’re unable to make the compromise. See Tip#4 for more details.
Tip #3: Use Pepper Raccoon Repellent Made at Home
Go for a homemade pepper raccoon repellent if you need a quick raccoon repellent. It’s easy to create and has everything you need right in your kitchen.
Raccoons use their sense of smell more than any other sense. It helps them find food, family, and even spot danger. Some scents, on the other hand, bother them. Pepper, like mint, is a good raccoon repellent.
To make the pepper repellent, mix some cayenne pepper from your spice jar with some liquid detergent in a spray bottle. The liquid detergent ensures that the pepper repellent stays on any surface you spray it on and that it is long-lasting. It leaves raccoons irritated with the smell, and they would stay away from your home.
You can apply this spray on every possible place or surface where you’ve seen a raccoon. The pepper raccoon repellent is non-toxic but can still sting hard if it comes in contact with your eyes. So, be careful.
Tip #4: Get Raccoon-Proof Pet Bowls
If you have pets, especially birds, and keep food bowls around to keep them fed at all times, you may be inviting raccoons too. Raccoons eat grains and other bird-like feed. So, leaving food bowls out can attract raccoons to your property regularly.
By ensuring that your birds’ meals aren’t accessible to raccoons, you can get rid of these pests. However, if it is hard to avoid leaving these food bowls out, there are various options for keeping raccoons out of them.
Begin by placing the appropriate amount of food in the bowls. Ensure that the amount of food you put out is just enough for the time of day, leaving no food for the animals. You may also have to constantly remove leftovers at the end of each day.
Using a raccoon guard is another viable option. You can buy them from any local animal store. This should efficiently keep these animals away from your pet’s food.
Tip #5: Close Any Openings into Your Home
Raccoons can gain access to your home through any opening, making it easier for them to destroy parts of your property’s interior. So, it’s critical to close any gaps to prevent this from happening.
Your chimney, for example, could serve as a safe area for cohabitation and reproduction – similar to trees in the wild. Also, raccoons prefer to live in dark places, so seal off any holes that lead into any dark rooms in your home.
For example, raccoons in the attic are a relatively common occurrence because it is not a commonly visited part of the house and is usually dark. As a result, it’s critical to seal any gaps that allow raccoons access to this haven. If you already have raccoons in your attic, make sure they can get out before you plug these holes since it would be devastating to have them trapped within with no way out.
Don’t let any holes go unnoticed. It doesn’t matter if it’s big or small; raccoons, being intelligent animals, can use their claws to dig a little hole large enough for them. So, it’s smart to fill in every crack and hole with wood, concrete, or other proper material that you can find.
Tip #6: Use Of Motion-activated Noise
As mentioned earlier, raccoons are intelligent animals, but their intellect also makes them easily frightened. Fixing a motion-activated noise around the exterior of your house, especially if some lights accompany it, can scare these animals away.
You may simply buy speakers that get activated when they detect movement, particularly from wildlife. You may also opt for predatory sounds for these animals. If they think your home is a danger zone, they will avoid it.
You can use speakers that emit sounds audible to raccoons but not audible to the human ear to avoid clashes with your neighbors over the noise. Basically, any quick and loud sound will do the job.
Tip #7: Enlist the Help of Professionals
If you’ve tried every raccoon trap you can find, and they’re still coming, you consider hiring a professional. They’re your greatest bet for permanently removing raccoons in the most humane way possible.
Allowing a raccoon family to stay in your home for an extended period has long-term consequences. Also, entrusting the job to professionals prevents you from becoming stressed or hurt due to bites and scratches, which typically happen while attempting to catch or trap them without proper equipment.
Furthermore, removing raccoons yourself puts you at risk of contracting dangerous diseases, as these rodents can carry a variety of viruses that can make you or your pet sick.
While it may be cheaper to get rid of raccoons yourself, professionals are well-equipped and trained to effectively remove raccoons in the safest manner possible. Raccoon removal is quite different from removing other rodents, and their intelligence can make it frustrating. So, you also want to hire an expert with excellent experience in removing raccoons.
A trained wildlife control specialist could also give you specific advice on avoiding future raccoon invasions.
Conclusion
Having raccoon invasions on a regular basis can be aggravating. While the tips above can help, your best bet is to hire a specialist like SIA Wildlife Control services. We can help you remove them permanently from your property.
At SIA Wildlife Control services, we specialize in removing common household pests, including squirrels, opossums, raccoons, rats, bats, mice, and pigeons, from residences and businesses. What’s more, we use a seamless 1-way door system to achieve the most humane raccoon removal possible.
Ready to have a permanently raccoon-free property? Contact us today!
