Raccoon Prevention Tips: How to Keep Away Raccoons

When you’re having difficulties with raccoons invading your space, there’s not a lot that you can do to de-escalate the situation. Once they’ve gotten in, it becomes incredibly difficult and time-consuming to get them out. Whether they infest your attic or your basement, mess up your trashcans or drown in your pool, they’re an inconvenience that can result in some serious property damage and disease contamination. The best way to deal with these nasty creatures is to prevent them from ever causing you problems in the first place, but many people feel at a loss for effective methods of raccoon prevention. How can they keep these gruesome beasts from wreaking havoc on their lives?



Prevention Tip #1: Lock Up Your Trash Cans
The most attractive thing for any wild animal is easy access to food, and for a raccoon, that means rifling through trash cans. When your trash can has loose lids, broken parts, or even an easily-lifted lid, you’re in trouble. Raccoons have opposable thumbs, which means they can lift that lid without batting an eye. They’ll then tear open the bags and dumpster-dive like a pro, which makes as big of a mess as it sounds like.

Prevention Tip #2: Beef Up Your Security
Raccoons don’t scare easily. You can sprinkle as much coyote urine crystals around your yard as you like, they’re not going to be deterred. They’ll eat the food you leave out for your pets, and they’ll terrorize your puppy or cat as well. These guys don’t play around, and they’re here to get what they want. By blocking off access to things like food and shelter, you can feel more confident in being protected. Put up a fence, use chicken wire to board up crawl spaces, and patch up any holes in your house.

Prevention Tip #3: Keep Traps Handy
Honestly, if you’ve got something a raccoon wants, you’ll be hard pressed to keep them far from it. What you have to do is make the idea of getting shelter, food, and the like harder at your home than it is in the wild. That means being prepared for the worst. If you have to make an example out of a raccoon, then so be it. Trap that inconvenience before it has time to rip up your insulation and tear holes in your walls.

Go back to the Noises in the Attic home page.