Three Tips on How to Deter Raccoons | Nite Guard (2024)

FAQs

How can you deter raccoons? ›

Raccoons stay away from animals that are their natural predators. These natural predators include; bobcats, coyotes, the great horned owl. You may have picked up a pattern here- raccoon predators are typically large. They need to be large as raccoons are formidable targets.

As a general rule, raccoons are repelled by the sound and noise from wind chimes, radios set to a conversational station that mimicks human voice, bioacoustics from other animal noises, shouting, firecrackers, and the banging of pots and pans.

The scent of cayenne pepper is detestable to raccoons. You can make a homemade raccoon repellant by adding a small canister of cayenne and one bottle of hot sauce to a gallon of water and spray it around your garden, plants and shrubs. You can also spray this around your trash cans and on your lawn.

As nocturnal animals, most raccoons prefer to stay out of the spotlight. Bright lights that resemble daylight can scare raccoons away. The Urban Wildlife Rescue Organization also suggests using a hot sauce repellent.

Hot pepper sends raccoons to immediately look for drinking water. Any water source is likely to attract a raccoon that is thirsty. Their attempts at scaling fences or dirtying tree edges and stumps can be thwarted by placing/spraying hot peppers at the sites.

Even though raccoons are smart and cunning, these animals can also get easily startled. A sudden, loud sound is all it takes to make them go rushing away into the night. Being wild animals, raccoons also do not like music, so playing loud music in the attic can scare them off and cause them to leave your attic.

Although a porch light is helpful, it will not keep every raccoon away because the light source is too high. Motion-activated floodlights are lower and will only activate after a raccoon triggers the sensors. If you place the lights in key locations around your property, they will scare the raccoons away.

The raccoon may not seem like a very agile animal, and their movements on the ground might seem awkward. They have a hard time climbing things like rocks or even ladders and they can't climb smooth vertical walls so you'd think that trees would be off-limits for them. However, raccoons are often found in treetops.

Soap the yard

Raccoons use their superb sense of smell to forage for food, and some scents are really effective at keeping them away. The ingredients in Irish Spring soap are generally effective in keeping raccoons and other small mammals out of your yard.

Does Epsom salt deter raccoons? ›

Get rid of raccoons

A few tablespoons of Epsom salt spread around your garbage cans will deter the raccoons, who don't like the taste of the stuff. Don't forget to reapply after it rains.

From string, or a clothing line strung across a fence, hang balloons, strips of cloth or aluminum foil. These will frighten the animals and encourage them to leave the area. Remove or cover all possible food sources. Seal food in tightly closed containers of glass or metal.

Main Attraction: Raccoons are attracted to sweet foods, especially ripe fruit such as apples, peaches, and plums. They also feed on apricots, cherries, and mulberries.

Place metal sheeting around your roof, as well as around the base of the trees around your property, making it difficult for raccoons to climb up them. Install electric fencing on top of any fence that is close to your roof. Keep garbage bins stored inside your garage and pet food containers inside your home.

You can get rid of raccoons by taking advantage of a raccoon's fear of sharp, loud sounds. Sounds that scare raccoons include the following: Wind Chimes: The random clanging will scare raccoons away, but these intelligent animals will ignore the chimes unless you change the location and type of chimes regularly.

Activity: Nocturnal in nature, raccoons are mostly active at nighttime. They are most active in spring, summer and fall, and will sleep in their dens for most of the winter.

Large predators are enough to frighten off almost everything. Raccoon populations can be terrified by the noises of a ferocious dog. Since their natural predators were hunted by humans, their numbers have progressively increased.

Back away from the animal in a calm and decisive manner. If the animal is not hurt or afraid, it will not attack you. However, it can be difficult to tell if a raccoon is rabid — and rabid raccoons can be extremely aggressive. If you meet a raccoon that appears aggressive, back away from the animal quickly.

Hot pepper, garlic, peppermint oil, onion, and Epsom salt are a few scents used to repel raccoons. Read on to see how you can discourage these pests from entering your house and make sure that they're out for good.

Use Motion Sensor Lights

Raccoons are nocturnal foragers and usually do most of their damage at night. Motion sensor lights, when installed in the right locations around the yard, can quickly scare the creatures away before they have a chance to get closer to the house.

What not to do when dealing with raccoons? ›

Don't feed raccoons – either on purpose or accidentally. In addition to securing your trash can lids, avoid leaving any pet food or treats outside and feed your pets indoors. You will never need to remove raccoons or other animals from your home if you never let them inside in the first place.

Raccoon droppings are cylindrical in shape, have rounded or broken ends, and are typically dark in color, though coloration varies depending on what the animal has recently eaten. Raccoon scat is likely to contain berries, as they are a favorite food source.

Here's how to stop skunks & raccoons from digging up your lawn: Make it hard for them to dig, apply nematodes, use aeration, keep the soil wet, use cayenne pepper & unroll chicken wire over the area along with these other 12 tips to help with animals digging up your lawn.

It's most likely either a squirrel or a mouse. Both squirrels and mice scratch and chew their way through a wide variety of materials. While much more unlikely, it could also be a raccoon, although raccoons will only make a scratching noise in walls if they've become trapped.

Predators. Hawks, owls and humans are major predators. Snakes may eat young raccoons. A raccoon will stay in its den during the day to avoid being preyed upon, and can be aggressive toward potential predators.

Wet cat food is relatively fatty, and it's also quite pungent, so it's something that raccoons will notice as soon as they come out. While raccoons can't resist the smell of cat food, the same goes for other animals—especially, you guessed it, cats.

Raccoons hate the smell of apple cider vinegar (and so do some humans!). Soak a cloth in apple cider vinegar and place it in an aerated container near the den. The smell will deter them!

Spices like cinnamon, black pepper or cayenne pepper bother a raccoon's sense of smell, forcing it to relocate to a more livable area. By mixing cayenne pepper and onion in boiling water, you can create a natural raccoon repellant. You can add hot sauce to the mixture, as well.

Mothballs get rid of all kinds of critters

Raccoons dislike the strong smell of mothballs. Buy a box and scatter them around your property to prevent raccoons from taking up residence.

Peppermint Essential Oil

Raccoons do not like the smell of peppermint. You can spray them all over the places where raccoons tend to look for food. However, this can be very expensive since you keep on repeating this when the smell fades away.

Where do raccoons go during the day? ›

Raccoons may climb trees in order to rest safely during the day. Most raccoons, however, will rest inside one of their dens.

Sprays: Add 2 ounces peppermint essential oil and 2 ounces rubbing alcohol to a spray bottle, then fill the rest of the bottle with water, and spray around the den, except the point of entry.

Ammonia is a chemical compound naturally found in urine which raccoons find rather offensive. Wolf, coyote and mountain lion urine is sold as a raccoon deterrent. The ammonia present in human urine can also be used, although it is unclear whether it is effective at keeping raccoons away for long.

Many animals are repelled by citrus scents; gather up orange, lemon and grapefruit peels and scatter them around your plants. Animals don't like shapes that move in the night – so hang strips of rags, aluminum foil or balloons from branches or a clothesline to chase them away.

They can also peel the orange as a human would. So if you see orange peels on the ground around your tree in the morning, it probably was raccoons feasting on the oranges during the night.

The availability of food sources in close proximity to potential den sites attracts female raccoons to nest. The presence of food sources is one reason raccoon populations can grow rapidly and become very large in urban and suburban areas. Eliminating food sources is the first step to deter raccoons.

Raccoons are excellent climbers. At the end of a raccoon's fingers are strong claws. These help the raccoon grasp or climb just about anything, from a garbage can to a tree, to brick on a building!

Raccoons typically like to den in hollow trees, ground burrows, brush piles, muskrat houses, barns and abandoned buildings, dense clumps of cattail, haystacks or rock crevices. They are also known to use parts of homes, including chimneys, attics, and hollow areas beneath porches to make dens.

Predators. Hawks, owls and humans are major predators. Snakes may eat young raccoons. A raccoon will stay in its den during the day to avoid being preyed upon, and can be aggressive toward potential predators.

Fight or flight

Healthy raccoons are unlikely to pick a fight with a dog, but dogs sometimes chase raccoons. Sick or injured raccoons, cornered mothers protecting their young and orphaned baby raccoons are most likely to be victims of dog attacks.

Are raccoons afraid of cats? ›

Some wild animals pose no threat to your pets, while others could be dangerous if they feel threatened. Raccoons fall into the latter category, but if you have cats, you may be surprised to know that raccoons often get along well with felines.

Chocolate, onions, raisins and macadamia nuts are toxic to raccoons. Garlic and bread aren't toxic, but they can upset a raccoon's digestion. Coffee, cocoa and candies can cause health problems in raccoons.

Sweet foods and fatty meats are some of the best baits to place in a live trap when you want to lure a raccoon inside. Below, the experts at Havahart^® share their top baiting suggestions as well as other raccoon baiting tips.

Yes, raccoons do attack pets. While it's not the most common thing, it happens pretty often. Raccoons aren't likely to seek out any pets unless they carry the rabies virus; they'll more than happily respond to a nearby pet or dog.

Hot pepper, garlic, peppermint oil, onion, and Epsom salt are a few scents used to repel raccoons. Read on to see how you can discourage these pests from entering your house and make sure that they're out for good.

Raccoons are primarily crepuscular (active at dawn and dusk) and nocturnal (active at night). They occasionally venture out in the daytime, but that does not mean that they are diseased. Raccoons often adjust their feeding schedules, especially in spring when rearing their young.

A raccoon would win a fight against a cat. Raccoons are bigger than most cats, and it's nearly impossible for the smaller animal to launch an attack that would kill the raccoon immediately.

What to Do if a Raccoon Approaches You? If a raccoon approaches you, it is recommended that you break eye contact and slowly back away, moving into a building until the animal passes. Make yourself appear larger while doing this, but do not attack the raccoon unless you're attacked first.

Will Raccoons Hurt Cats? The short answer to whether raccoons will hurt cats is that yes, it is possible. Raccoons can hurt cats either directly, by biting or scratching them, or indirectly, through transmitting a disease.