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Home » Blog » 6 Tips and Tricks to Keep Raccoons Out of Your Yard and Home

6 Tips and Tricks to Keep Raccoons Out of Your Yard and Home

6 Tips and Tricks to Keep Raccoons Out of Your Yard and Home

The raccoon population has exploded in the last few decades, making human interactions with this deceptively cute creature all too common. You can often find a curious raccoon in trashcans and gardens rummaging for food. They can make their way into attics, basements, and even the walls inside your home if they find a hole they can fit through.

As innocent as they might look, raccoons are some of the most destructive of the common critters found in and around the average suburban home. They can carry rabies, get aggressive, and leave toxic fumes in your home from their droppings and urine if they linger for too long.

Raccoons can be incredibly frustrating for residents with gardens and ponds with exotic fish—these cunning omnivores eat almost anything. Like a thief in the night, they’ll run away with their bellies full of your prized cabbage, carrots, and, yes, even your koi. When we provided our raccoon removal services, at Critter Stop we found that having these critters could cause a very high level of stress in homeowners.

Group of raccoons
The raccoon population has grown up in the past years.

How Can You Deter Them Safely?

As pesky and costly as these critters can be, they are essential to our natural environment. They only enter your home or yard when they need to. Resorting to inhumane solutions to a pest issue may be dangerous, not just to the animal but your family and pets as well.

Instead, you might want to take preventative measures to keep critters away before you resort to calling a professional raccoon removal service. So, what can you do to prevent and deter them?

Here are some tips to follow that will keep raccoons out of your property and keep everyone safe.

1. Know the Signs of Damage

When we have provided our raccoon removal services, we have found that the most common places to find raccoons on your property are in your attic and your yard. Here are some signs to look for.

  • Attic: Check for any chewed wiring or ducts, flattened insulation, broken vents, nests, and droppings. These critters like to get to the attic through the roof, so look for damaged shingles and any openings. If a raccoon is in your attic, it is likely a female with babies, so be extra careful when looking around for any nests.
  • Yards: Frequently overturned trashcans are one of the best indications of a raccoon problem. It may even wake you up in the middle of the night. Noticed any missing fish from your pond, dug up gardens, dropping around the base of trees, and holes in your grass? Those are signs you’re likely dealing with raccoons too.
raccoon garbage can
Securing your trashcans is a good way to keep raccoons out of your property.

2. Fence in Your Garden and Clean Up Your Yard

No matter the kinds of foods you grow, these animals will pull up your vegetables and pick your fruits if they are accessible. Installing affordable chicken wire fencing to protect your garden is an excellent preventative measure. Also, pick any ripe fruit on your fruit trees regularly and gather anything that’s fallen from your trees before nightfall to deter hungry critters.

3. Keep an Eye and Lid on Your Trashcans

The best place to keep your trashcan is indoors or inside a garage. Raccoons have the dexterity to open pretty much any trashcan. Your leftovers from dinner are the perfect nighttime meal. Place your bins somewhere inside if you keep waking up to a yard full of trash; you can even go a step further by purchasing a bin with a lid that locks in place.

4. Put Your Pets’ Food Away

Just like human trash, raccoons will gravitate to anything edible and accessible in your yard. Pet food needs to be kept inside at night. If you’re used to feeding your pets on your patio, you may purchase a bowl you can take in and outside. Do a quick sweep when bringing pet food inside after dinner—don’t leave anything out for a wandering raccoon to nibble on overnight.

5. Stay Away from Poisons and Handling a Raccoon

Raccoons find their way into your home and yard because they need warmth, safety, and food. They don’t intend to harm you. Poisons could seriously harm them, as well as any pets or children that could come into contact with the chemicals.

In our experience providing raccoon removal services, handling these animals could be just as dangerous as spreading poison around your home. It’s best that you don’t attempt it. Picking up this animal or trying to wrangle it into a cage may cause unnecessary stress resulting in aggressive behavior, like biting or scratching.

6. Call an Expert Raccoon Removal Service

You can follow these tips and still be susceptible to a critter that won’t leave or keeps coming back. In that case, you need to call an expert. Finding a removal service that offers good customer service and has positive reviews is key to successfully solving your critter problem and actually repairing the damage they caused.

raccoon trapped
Hiring a removal company like Critter Stop is safer than DIY remove.

Call the Professionals at Critter Stop

When you can’t seem to scare those pesky raccoons away, you need qualified and trustworthy experts to help. Critter Stop raccoon removal services always include a free consultation and a thorough inspection of your home. We seal your home, trap the critters, and even repair damage caused by raccoons and other animals. Best of all, we pride ourselves on the humane treatment of the animals we catch and keep away from your home.

Are you looking for professionals to get the job done right? It’s time to call us at (214) 234-2616. Let us help you stop those critters!

Critter problem? We can put a stop to that!

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Lee Gorman
Lee Gorman
13:50 21 Nov 22
I’d give a 10 star review if I could! We had a great experience with Critter Stop. Everyone I dealt was friendly, professional, and reassuring. Phillip was very helpful and knowledgeable about the work he was doing. He walked me around the entire house to make sure I saw and understood the services he provided. He was also really nice and answered all my questions — he is exactly the type of person that should be interacting with customers.I love the fact that they will come back for up to 1 year after installation if any problems occur — this shows me they stand behind their work.The owner was great too, he personally came to my house and walked me through their offering. I recommend critter stop to anyone and everyone!
Susan Casey
Susan Casey
14:53 15 Nov 22
Critter Stop is a fantastic business! Everyone involved is extremely professional and very easy to communicate with. Chisam, the owner, did a great job of explaining the process to get the squirrels out of my attic during the initial free estimate. The exclusion crew who did all of the initial work was fabulous. The crew consisted of Phillip, Nick and Corey who arrived promptly when they said they would. They are happy, positive employees. Everyone is very polite and patient in explaining their work and answering questions. They came back several times to check the traps and finish it off with the fogging. Lester was very good about following up to schedule each trap check with me, and the office staff who took care of the billing was very efficient. Critter Stop is a well run company with honest, trustworthy employees! Thank you to all of you who worked hard to make my attic critter free and for the peace of mind that you guarantee your work. Great to know I can call them if for some reason a squirrel figures out a way to get back in!
Karen Eckholdt
Karen Eckholdt
14:54 22 Sep 22
Critter Stop has made this project easy and extremely professional from start to finish! They are very detailed and competent from start to finish and know so much about their business. They made a problem easy for us and at a reasonable cost. We would be happy to recommend this company and their owners and staff to anyone.
Aaron Echols
Aaron Echols
13:51 03 Aug 22
The guys at Critter Stop responded quickly, were very friendly, and gave us an honest estimate of what we might need. They explained why some items on other quotes were or were not necessary. They communicated well to get us scheduled, and did the work well and quickly. Great service at a fair and competitive price.
Jacob Scribner
Jacob Scribner
19:23 27 Jul 22
Brandon and his other coworker Gavin came to install insulation in my attic. I am very grateful for the hard work and professionalism. My house feels a lot better with the insulation installed. 5 star review. Cory Leach was also very nice and helpful. He came to my house to do another job and was very attentive and professional. Thank you Corey and thank you Critter Stop for helping me.The owner very polite and helpful, I’m glad I found this company to help me.
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