Raccoons might be cute, but they’re no good for your garden: here are tips on how to remove them from your yard.
Keep Raccoons Away from Your Crops
How to Identify Raccoons
Raccoons are small mammals 2 to 3 feet in length and weighing about 10 to 30 pounds. Raccoons have distinct black 鈥渕asks鈥 on their faces, which often characterizes them as bandits. They have fluffy, ringed tails, and their bodies are varying shades of gray, with hints of light brown. The forepaws of raccoons resemble tiny human hands with five toes, which makes raccoons very dexterous.
Raccoons are nocturnal creatures, meaning that they feed at night. This might make it hard for you to identify them, as you might only see the damage they cause. Looking for raccoon tracks near the damage might also help you to identify them. Learn more about identifying animal tracks.
Photo Credit: M. Sorrentino, University of Vermont. After a rainy night, five-toed tracks might appear in the mud around your garden. These raccoon tracks are easily distinguished from most other four-toed mammals.
Raccoon Damage
If your lawn has a lot of holes in it, or your mulch pile has a lot of holes, you probably have a nightly visitor. Raccoons will dig up lawns and mulch piles looking for insects to eat. They will also empty bird feeders, so keep an eye on your feeders to see if you have a raccoon problem. Additionally, raccoons are known to raid chicken coops, stealing eggs and even killing chickens.
Of course, if you have corn, there鈥檚 nothing more infuriating than finding stalks toppled and ears ripped open and half eaten. (Even more frustrating is the idea, offered by animal researchers, that raccoons are wasteful because they don鈥檛 really like sweet corn all that much; in fact, they seem to prefer sunflower seeds, dog food, and sardines.)
How to Get Rid of Raccoons
The persistence and proliferation of raccoons have inspired many solutions; one of them is bound to work for you. Here are tips from all our readers and staff! See what works for you.
- If your raccoon problem is persistent, you can set live raccoon traps in your garden and release the animal at least three miles away (check local and state laws first). Raccoons will eat virtually anything; try fish-flavored dry cat food, chicken necks, ears of corn, or whole peanuts for bait.
- To keep raccoons at a distance, try scattering blood meal around corn plants. Also, try sprinkling wood ashes around your plants.
- Grind up garlic, mix it with an equal portion of chili powder, and spread it around the garden. Frequent applications are needed.
- One reader says, 鈥淗ang shoes and clothes that smell of human perspiration around your garden or corn patch.鈥 Similarly, 鈥淵ou can try to repel raccoons by putting dog hair or human hair around the garden.鈥
- Tune a radio to a rock station and set it in the middle of your garden and/or corn patch. Leave it on all night. The noise will scare away the raccoons.
- Put lights in the garden. A bright lantern will sometimes keep Sun-shy raccoons away.
- Plant enough corn for man and beast alike.
- Add some pinwheels and streamers to your garden to scare the creatures.
- Folk wisdom suggests that you spread newspapers around the perimeter of the garden.
How to Prevent Raccoons
- Build a good fence around your garden. Beware though, raccoons are agile and intelligent; make sure your fence will keep them out. You may need to install an electric fence. This is a good measure. A two-wire fence, with one wire four to six inches above the ground and the other at 12 inches, should be effective.
- If your home is near your garden, remove any possible food sources from the area, including pet food and bird seed. Buy garbage cans with locking lids and keep garbage inside if possible. Keep pet doors sealed shut between dusk and dawn. Cap your chimneys. Seal any holes or gaps in attics and roofs.
- Grow tall varieties of corn such as 鈥楽ilver Queen鈥, 鈥楰andy Korn鈥, and 鈥楲ancelot鈥. Taller plants bear their ears higher, causing raccoons trouble getting leverage to topple stalks and ravage them. They prefer shorter plants.
- You can also plant squash around your corn or other plants to deter raccoons; they don鈥檛 like walking on the prickly squash vines.
Do you have any more tips for getting rid of a raccoon? Let us know below!
Catherine Boeckmann
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We live on a farm...and a couple of years ago, the raccoons seem to know the day you are going out to pick your corn...because they show up and strip it clean the NIGHT BEFORE!
A year ago, I did the electric fence thing...I used one wire, and there was a pesky racoon that still got through it...when I used two wires, then not a problem.
This year, I have discovered there is electrified "netting"...not every wire is electrified...in fact the lower wire in the netting can sit right on the ground because it is not a conductor.
Just Google [Electric Net Fencing] and you'll find it.
This netting comes in 3.5" or 7" squares...I'm going for the 3.5"...should keep just about anything out... Also you can get heights from 28" up to 48" tall...it comes in a roll and every 13' there is a fence post.
Yes it is a little pricier than stringing up a couple of wires, but it can be used year after year, and it appears to be easy to erect and take down.
I have decided not to just protect my corn, but I'm ordering enough to go around my entire garden.
I live in town & the racoons & possums are all over the place. The problem is my neighbors have an apple tree near my fence in the backyard by my garage/shed. How can I get rid of them with that issue, ask my neighbors to cut down their tree? I find their feces & chewed up apples all over my yard!!
We have many unwanted raccoons! Unwanted because we have a little dog and feed feral cats! A few years ago my little dog Lily, God rest her soul, ate some coon poop and get deathly sick! So bad that our Vet told me to prepare she may not make it! Raccoon feces is the most deadly because they eat anything and everything! I took vacation and spent 24 -7 with her for a week! With tears, love, and prayers, I finally got her to start eating. Boiled deer hamburger and rice. Hand feeding crumbles every hour. So I am not a fan of those little bandits. We are very careful now with this pup. They have made living in the country a nightmare with all the destruction they cause!
We'd suggest that you talk to your neighbor about the issue. Raccoons are easier than deer. You could simply add four t-posts and some chicken wire about a month before harvest and the raccoons can't get to it. The cage doesn't have to be up year-round and then your neighbor can still eat the apples.
I didn't realize it was illegal to use mothballs, but a friend of ours told us that was a good way to keep raccoons out of our corn patch. I spread the mothballs all around the patch and now I am wondering if the corn will absorb the chemicals in the moth balls because it rained. Should we not eat this corn crop?
Yes, mothballs may be illegal to use food crops in some areas. They are indeed dangerous to use around children and animals, but that's because they could ingest them. It's probably fine to eat this crop and just use them around ornamental crops in the future.
I have a koi pond and my koi are disappearing I think either blue heron or raccoon s are getting them any ideas to get rid of or scare off these critters
My koi are disappearing from my koi pond and I think blue heron or raccoon s are getting them any ideas how to keep them away or discourage them
All of this is ridiculous advice! Raccoons are full of parasites and disease. They can have rabies as well. The eggs in their feces can have ringworm eggs that can live from months to years on your ground and garden. Furthermore, the urine is highly parasitic and an animal that steps in urine and then licks its paws or drinks/eats from same dish, can get very ill. Ringworm, rabies, distemper, raccoon disease, blindness etc. If people would trust professionals to trap is best. No one should be advised to trap or feed them, please be wildlife smart!
As I've commented above, it can be very frustrating to get some animal control people to even respond. At least it is around here. We had a bear trashing the common dumpster, and had a very hard time getting Fish and Game out here to relocate it. I suspect that some of the people who do their own trapping are driven to it because they try to get professionals to do it, and they won't. You can call, but good luck if they cooperate!
