How to Keep Raccoons Out of Your Yard?

“Just need easy tricks to keep raccoons out of your yard!”

Picture this: It’s a beautiful morning. You step outside with your cup of coffee, ready to enjoy the peace. But wait, what have you noticed? Your yard looks like a scene from a raccoon’s late-night party! Sounds familiar? Then you’ve come to the right place.

Based on personal experience and fruitful research, I’ve compiled the best ways to keep raccoons out of your yard. In this ultimate guide, I’ve also discussed how to keep raccoons out of your property and answered some basic questions that probably pop up in your mind often.

So, let’s roll up our sleeves and show these furry bandits that the free ride is over!🏡🚫🦝

7 Best Ways to Keep Raccoons Out of Your Yard!

1. Keep Your Yard Clean

We can’t deny the fact that raccoons are attracted to areas where they can easily get food and shelter. It’s important to maintain cleanliness in your yard to deter raccoons. You can do it by securing your garbage bins, as the smell of food waste can attract these creatures. Furthermore, you need to clean out hiding spots, such as overgrown shrubs, piles of wood, or unattended sheds. Plus, regularly trimming your plants is also necessary. If you have a compost pile, ensure it’s properly contained and turned regularly to minimize odors.

By keeping your yard clean and free of attractants, you can make it less appealing to raccoons. Remember, a clean yard is a raccoon-free yard!

2. Remove Food Sources

If you are a pet parent or have a habit of keeping bird food, I recommend you remove all the potential food sources from your yard. Raccoons are attracted to places where they can easily eat, drink, and rest. In addition, if you keep piles of vegetable waste or fruit peels for compost, remove those things as well.

If you remove food sources, raccoons will not have anything to eat, and they will leave your place easily. This trick will surely help you keep raccoons out of your yard and property.

3. Secure Your Trash Bins

Raccoons are clever and know how to get food to fill their tummies. When they are hungry, they attack garbage bins to get food. Their very strong noses allow them to smell leftover food or vegetable waste easily. This is one of the reasons they keep coming back to your garden. To prevent your yard from raccoon attacks, it is advisable to secure your trash bins carefully.

For instance, you can tie a trash bag tightly and put it in a bin, cover it, and place heavy objects on the bin so that raccoons cannot open it. In short, this makes the bin less accessible for raccoons to attack. Even if you secure a trash bin, they can still sense the smell of leftover food.

So, whenever you throw seafood or raw meat, seal it in one bag and then keep it in a trash bag. This reduces the chances that the smell will spread.

4. Block Entry Points to Keep Raccoons Out of Your Yard

Are you wondering how to keep raccoons out of your yard? One of the best solutions is to block all potential spaces/entry points so that they cannot easily enter. For instance, roof edges are common entry points for raccoons, so it is recommended to install a vent cover or wire mesh so that they don’t have any space to enter your home or yard.

Furthermore, you can install fences around the garden boundary. The fences should be made of sturdy material and high enough that raccoons find it difficult to climb them. Moreover, you can block access to chimneys, attics, and vents, where raccoons might take shelter to rest.

Read more: The best way to keep rabbits out of garden!; Are hibiscus deer resistant? How to keep dogs out of your yard?

5. Use Scent Repellents

Just like dogs, raccoons have a strong sense of smell; they can sense it from a far distance. You can use this as a disadvantage against them by using strong smells, which they don’t like coming in contact with. Trust me, this trick will surely give you a positive outcome, and raccoons will never be seen again in your yard.

Raccoons hate some smells, such as predator urine, garlic, vinegar, ammonia, cayenne pepper, onion, blood meal, peppermint oil, wood ash, and other animal fur. You can use any of these to get rid of them from your lawn.

Here are some tricks on how you can use these ingredients to keep raccoons out of your yard:

• You can prepare garlic spray at home and sprinkle it around your yard. You can also crush garlic cloves and store them in a container. This will spread a strong smell in your garden.

• Buy predator urine from an online store and spray it around your yard. The raccoons will get scared and will not try to keep their feet on the lawn.

• You can simply use dog fur or cat fur around your yard, it will act as a scent deterrent to raccoons.

If you use any of the tricks, you will get the result. If you are using a homemade or commercial repellent spray, I recommend you use it twice a week. Otherwise, the scent will diminish, and you need to reapply to get permanent protection.

6. Eliminate Grubs and Insects

As we discussed above, raccoons are attracted to garbage. They also love eating insects, grubs, and tiny beetle larvae. If you notice raccoons frequently visiting your yard and digging your lawn repeatedly, it means they are on the hunt for insects or beetles that they have found in your lawn. So, they keep coming back to have them.

Eliminating insects and grubs from your yard will help to get rid of raccoons from your yard. You need to do pest control on your lawn, or you can also use soap and water to kill the insects in your garden. But, remember, whichever method you use, keep your yard insects and beetles free so that raccoons don’t get any scope of coming back to your garden.

How to Keep Raccoons Out of Your Property?

Have raccoons become permanent guests? Are they not ready to leave your house? Well, I can completely understand your situation. Don’t worry; from personal experience, I have jotted down essential tips that will help you get rid of raccoon chaos from your house.

Just relax, and go through the pro tips in detail!

1. Trim Trees

We can’t deny that raccoons have sharp minds and are clever, just like dogs and cats. So, they know very well how to get shelter and food for themselves. Plus, they are excellent climbers. Their long, dexterous fingers and sharp claws help them grip rough surfaces and branches and rocks.

If your home is surrounded by trees and has long branches, I recommend trimming the branches to make them less accessible for raccoons. This will prevent them from climbing the branches and entering your house to take shelter or have food in your yard and destroy your vegetation. Basically, create no pathway for raccoons to enter your rooftop.

2. Seal Entrance Point

Raccoons need little space and they are in your house. Yes, you heard it right. They are good at climbing and have a good grip on their claws, so they need little space to enter. That’s why we recommend you inspect your home closely and close the holes or cracks of any potential entry for raccoons to enter. Plus, you also need to pay close attention to pipes, wires, and other utilities of your home. If there is any crack, you need to seal it off immediately.

Since raccoons’ claws are very strong, you need a strong rooftop made of sturdy and durable material. It will protect your house from raccoons or other wildlife.

3. Never Feed the Raccoons

Many of us have a habit of feeding animals. If you feed food to raccoons on a daily basis, it will give them wrong impressions. They will think they are secure at your place and will become relaxed. Soon, they will visit frequently at your home to take shelter and start digging your yard for worms or grubs.

We recommend you stop feeding raccoons immediately. Once they observe that you have removed the food source for them, they will stop coming back to your place. In this way, you can save your home from converting into a raccoon’s shelter home.🏡🚫🦝

Read more; How to Keep Dogs Out of Your Yard?

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