Raccoons are intelligent, adaptable mammals that thrive in urban and suburban environments, often leading to conflict with homeowners. Their dexterity allows them to exploit easy access to food and shelter, quickly establishing a presence on a property. Effective management requires a multi-layered approach that combines removing attractants, installing physical barriers, and employing active deterrents. Relying on one method is rarely successful against such a resourceful pest.
Eliminating Primary Attractants
The primary step in discouraging raccoons is to eliminate the incentives that draw them to your property, primarily food and water sources. Raccoons have an excellent sense of smell, making accessible garbage the most common lure. Homeowners should secure trash cans with locking lids, heavy-duty straps, or bungee cords looped over the top and handles to prevent them from being pried open.
Rinsing food containers and double-bagging food waste helps minimize strong odors. Pet food left outdoors overnight is an easy meal and should always be brought inside before dusk. Home gardens also offer temptation, so harvesting ripe fruits and vegetables promptly limits available forage. Eliminating sources of standing water, such as bird baths or leaky spigots, removes accessible drinking spots and makes the property less hospitable.
Implementing Physical Barriers
Physical exclusion is the most reliable long-term solution for preventing raccoon entry. Raccoons can squeeze through openings as small as four inches, so securing structural entry points is paramount. Vents and chimneys should be covered with heavy-gauge wire mesh or chimney caps to block access to attics and interior spaces.
For areas like decks, sheds, and porches that offer secluded den sites, an L-shaped barrier is effective. This involves burying galvanized hardware cloth or wire mesh 12 to 18 inches deep around the structure’s perimeter. The mesh is then bent outward at a 90-degree angle, extending horizontally 18 to 24 inches along the ground, creating a false bottom that prevents raccoons from digging underneath.
Protecting a garden or yard may require specialized fencing to defeat a raccoon’s ability to climb. A single or double-strand electric fence, with the lowest wire placed six to eight inches above the ground, delivers a harmless but memorable shock that conditions the animals to avoid the area. Alternatively, an angled fence with a floppy top section or an outward-sloping overhang makes climbing nearly impossible.
Active Repellent Methods
Once passive controls are in place, active deterrents can be used to scare raccoons away from frequently visited areas. Motion-activated sprinklers are effective because the sudden spray of water and noise startles the nocturnal animals, prompting them to flee. Bright, flashing lights, often marketed as predator eyes, can also serve as a useful sensory deterrent when placed near trash cans or garden entrances.
Scent and taste repellents are a temporary option, but their effectiveness is inconsistent, as raccoons quickly become accustomed to them. Commercial sprays that utilize capsaicin, the compound that gives chili peppers their heat, can deter feeding by causing temporary irritation. These products require frequent reapplication, particularly after rain, since weather rapidly diminishes their potency. Household remedies like ammonia or predator urine are generally less effective long-term, though ammonia-soaked rags can sometimes encourage a mother raccoon to relocate her young from a confined space like a chimney.
Professional Intervention and Safety
If a raccoon is already denning inside a structure, such as an attic, wall, or chimney, professional intervention is often necessary. Wildlife control operators possess the expertise and specialized equipment to remove animals humanely, especially in cases involving nursing mothers and their kits. Attempting to seal an entry point without confirming the absence of young can lead to the adult destroying the structure to reach them, or the young dying inside.
Raccoons can carry diseases, making safety precautions during any cleanup or interaction important. They are a primary carrier of rabies, and their feces can contain eggs of the raccoon roundworm, Baylisascaris procyonis. This parasite poses a serious health risk if ingested, potentially causing severe neurological damage in humans.
When cleaning raccoon droppings (latrines), individuals must wear protective gear, including gloves and a mask, and decontaminate surfaces with boiling water or a propane torch, as the eggs are resistant to most chemical disinfectants. Before attempting to trap an animal, check local regulations, as laws governing the trapping and relocation of nuisance wildlife vary significantly by county and state. In many jurisdictions, live trapping and relocation is illegal and requires a permit or professional licensure.