5 Things To Do if You Have a Raccoon in Your Yard

You may have encountered a raccoon if you live close to the woods or have many trees around your home. These hairy black-eyed animals may be cute, but it is better if they maintain their distance. It is hard to miss them when they are around – the endless scampering for food, the noise in your yard, poop trails, and footprints will let you know they are around.

But there is no need to panic if you have a raccoon in your yard. Instead, remain calm and deploy the strategies discussed in this guide.

The following sections discuss five things to do immediately after spotting a raccoon in your yard. Afterward, we will walk you through five deterrent strategies to keep them at bay.

5 Things To Do if You Have a Raccoon in Your Yard

After spotting a raccoon in your yard, here are five things you should do immediately:

1. Call Animal Control Experts

Your first response to seeing stray animals in your yard should be to contact professionals. They will be in the best position to handle the animal and take it away to safety.

Do not try to pursue raccoons by yourself. The worst damage it can cause is to ravage your trash can while searching for food. It would not harm you, except if you tried to attack it first.

2. Do Not Feed It

Whether it happens intentionally or accidentally, you should not feed a stray raccoon, no matter how cute they look. Once you know that one is roaming about your home, avoid leaving food outside.

If you have a pet, you can feed them in your home or their cage instead of leaving their food outside. You also want to make sure your trash can is covered. Use a trash can with a solid lid that they cannot remove easily. This will prevent the raccoon from going through your trash can and searching for food.

When a raccoon finds food in your home, it will be hard to send it away. It may even attract more raccoons to your home.

3. Keep Them Away

Raccoons are carriers of many dangerous and infectious diseases like rabies. So if you have pets in your home, you shouldn’t allow them to mingle with the raccoon.

Please keep your pets in their playpens until you get rid of the raccoon. If you are not comfortable with them being outdoors, you can keep your pets inside your home. You will be able to monitor them better if you do this.

4. Do Not Let Them Inside Your Home

One look at the cute eyes of a stray raccoon can leave you feeling some sympathy toward it. However, no matter how much you want to rescue a stray raccoon, you should never let it inside your house.

Once it steps into your house, you will find it extremely difficult to get it out. Make sure you keep your doors and windows properly closed. Close all pet entrances or opening they are likely to enter through.

5. Do Not Try To Trap It

Astray raccoon will likely return to its abode if it feels uncomfortable in your yard. In a day or two, the stray raccoon may leave and never return. No matter how concerned you are about a raccoon, it would help if you did not try to trap it.

Raccoons are usually calm till they feel cornered or threatened. At that point, they can be very dangerous and even try to attack you. If you must trap a raccoon, do not do so unsupervised. Contact animal control to do it instead.

How To Deter Raccoons From Your Home

Finding a stray raccoon in your yard is an unpleasant experience you don’t want to go through twice. Below are a few things you can do to prevent these unwanted guests from returning to your home:

1. Make Use of Ultrasound Deterrent Devices

These are non-harmful devices that emit deterring sounds. These devices can emit growling or roaring sounds like predators that scare raccoons and other stray animals away.

2. Install Motion-Activated Sprinklers in Your Yard

If you have raccoons constantly running around in your garden, you can invest in motion-activated sprinklers. When the raccoon moves around your garden, the sprinkler will be set off and blast the rag on with water.

3. Build a Fence

If your garden is open, you can build a fence around it to keep the raccoons away. You can use wire gauze to build a wall round about your garden.

With this, raccoons will have no choice but to look for other places to get food rather than jump over the high fence.

4. Use Ammonia

Ammonia is a housecleaning agent that smells just like urine. Raccoons hate the smell of urine and avoid it any chance they get.

You can make an ammonia solution and leave it at entry points or places where you have seen increased raccoon activity.

5. Use Raccoon Repellant Trash Bags

No matter how well you tie your trash, some raccoons will still find a way to scatter it. Raccoon-repellant garbage bags can help keep them out of your yard if you have a raccoon infestation problem.

These bags are laced with solid scents like peppermint oil to keep them away. Not to worry, the bags are not harmful to you.

6. Make Your Repellant

You can make your own if you do not have access to ammonia or other raccoon-repellant substances. Raccoons detest the smell of pepper, and you can use it as your primary ingredient.

Create a mix of dish soap, water, and pepper and put it in a spray bottle. Spray it around the areas where you have seen raccoons in the past.

You can also let the mixture sit in a bowl and leave it at the various entry points to your garden.

Conclusion

Raccoons are not strange animals; you are likely to see a stay raccoon now and then. When you see one, do not fret.

Ensure they are as far away from you and your pets as possible. For example, you can build a fence around your garden, use ultrasound deterrent devices, or deter them with ammonia. You can also invest in raccoon-repellant bags.

Suppose these deterrent substances are unavailable. Then, there is another thing you can do. You can make a repellant using pepper, dish soap, and water.

With the strategies outlined above, the invading raccoons will surely stay away!