Raccoons are among the most common wildlife home intruders you’re likely to encounter across the United States. The trouble with raccoons is that they are omnivorous, which means they’ll eat just about anything they can get their hands on – leftovers, pet food, trash, seeds, grubs, and so on.
So deterring them from hitting up your garden gets that much harder, though in this article, we’ll try to give you an idea on how you can protect your vegetable garden (and yard) against raccoons.
How do you know it’s a raccoon?
If you’re unsure of the type of nightly visitor your garden patch is getting, try to look for clues. For instance, a raccoon infestation will show up in the form of little holes in your lawn or your mulch pile. Raccoons are skilled diggers, and they won’t shy away from doing this, looking for insects to eat.
Of course, a raccoon on your property will also present other problems. They’re notorious for raiding chicken coops (and even killing chickens!), as well as hitting up bird feeders.
What can you do to prevent a raccoon infestation?
1. Make your vegetable patch as unappealing as possible.
One of the best methods of prevention is to simply make your vegetable garden as unattractive as possible. This works to naturally deter the raccoon from causing trouble, since the vegetables will repulse rather than attract them.
To do this, you can try scattering blood around your vegetable garden, since raccoons don’t like that. Alternatively, you might try using wood ashes around your garden, as they’ll have the same effect.
2. Try your hand at DIY repellents.
Another really popular at-home raccoon prevention method is making up your own DIY repellent. The thing to remember about raccoons (and most other troublesome pests) is they don’t like strong flavors and/or odors. As a concerned homeowner, use this to your advantage by grinding up some fresh garlic cloves with some chili powder, to create a potent repelling mixture. Scatter the blend around your vegetable patch (though try to avoid getting any on your vegetables, as you might regret it when consuming), and this may be enough to keep raccoons away. While a DIY repellent may be somewhat effective, its effects will be limited, and you will need to reapply frequently, in order to see the desired effect.
3. Hire a professional.
If you are concerned about a raccoon infestation on your property, the best, most efficient thing you can do is hire a professional wildlife removal team like Red Rover Rodent Removal.
Hiring a professional is an excellent, highly effective choice for deterring wildlife from your vegetable patch. These are people with experience in the prevention and removal of raccoon infestations, and will know what to do without any trial and error. Not only that, they will also be able to advise you on future prevention methods.
A professional wildlife removal team will know what attracted the raccoon to your property, and will be able to tell you what to do to stop this from reoccurring in the future. So if you’re struggling with a raccoon infestation and are unsure what to do, do yourself a favor, and reach out to a professional wildlife removal company today.
4. Use a live trap.
If you are looking for a more DIY raccoon removal method, you may want to try a live trap, as a fairly efficient anti-raccoon option. A live trap will attract the raccoon inside a cage, using some sort of highly attractive bait. The door of the trap will then fall shut, capturing the raccoon, and allow you to transport and relocate the raccoon to a safe location.
This type of trap is a big favorite on the modern day market, as a humane, raccoon-friendly alternative to traditional lethal traps.
5. Try bright lights.
Since raccoons are nocturnal creatures, they have a natural aversion to bright lights, which is why a bright light deterrent might be just what the doctor ordered. You can either install some normal yard lights around your vegetable patch, or even purchase a special motion-activated light deterrent.
6. Or loud sounds.
Much like the lights, a sound deterrent is designed to make your yard and garden as unattractive to a raccoon as possible. This device will detect the presence of animals nearby, and blast out a loud, disruptive sound which will scare off the raccoon. Alternatively, you might try banging pots and pans together, or playing a radio loudly at night.
However, this might not go down so well with your neighbors, so make sure you reach out to them before you put up a sound deterrent in your yard, to avoid unpleasantness.
Generally, the best way to deter raccoon invasions is to make your yard and vegetable garden as unappealing as possible, rather than focus on removal after they’re already there.
