Raccoon Tips and Education
How to Get Rid of a Raccoon
Although there are many routes you could take when looking into how to get rid of a raccoon, there is only really one foolproof way to deal with an animal invasion situation.
The foolproof way? Hire a professional.
Why? Because you’ll save time, money, and a whole load of effort, that’s why.
Rather than leave it at that, let’s prove that point. Let’s take a closer look, answer the questions you have, and show why with this scenario, doing it yourself isn’t always the cheapest option…
How to get rid of a raccoon with poison
Firstly, don’t do this. There is no need for it, it is inhumane, and it doesn’t work. Do you have any idea of how much poison you’re going to need to kill an animal like a raccoon? This isn’t something small like a rat or a mouse, this is an animal that can grow to over twenty pounds in weight, which is about the same size as a small to medium dog.
Not just that, leaving poison lying around the place is really dangerous for kids and household pets, and if the raccoon does get poisoned, where do you think it is going to die? It’s not going to go out in your back yard, lay down on the lawn and keel over, it’s going to go into your attic, or back into the wall crevices. You run the risk of never finding it. Unless you follow your nose when the body has started to decompose, of course…
How to get rid of a raccoon with repellents
Another no, no, not because they are dangerous, but because they don’t work. Noise machine might discourage a raccoon for a while, but you’ll probably find that neighbors and friends can hear the high-pitched noise these machines emit, and you’re going to have very angry people on your hands if you don’t turn the machines off. They are enough to drive anyone crazy.
Light machines can work, but are only likely to work for a short time. These raccoons are scavengers, and hungry ones at that so a bit of light isn’t going to distract them. They’ve become pretty well adapted to living alongside humans, in the daylight hours or the nighttime ones!
Sprays, powders, anything else like that - they don’t work either. You’re wasting your money. If they did work, there wouldn’t be a need for wildlife control professionals, and call out’s are getting more and more frequent which should tell you something.
How to get rid of a raccoon with a trap
There are a number of kinds of traps out there if you’re planning on using one to get rid of a raccoon. Grip traps are like giant mouse traps and as you can imagine, they are pretty inhumane. Live traps are a much better idea because you give the raccoon a chance at a life - you trap it, and then release it miles away (10-15 miles) so that it can’t come back and bug you again.
Again, traps are going to come with their share of problems, and you’ll need a pretty big trap for a large raccoon. Plus then you’ll need to know what to bait it with, where to put it, whether or not you need more than one trap, and also where you release the animal afterwards. That’s before you even begin to consider the fact that this might be a female raccoon with her babies. What are you going to do with a box of raccoon babies on your hands? Don’t forget, this is a creature that can transmit the rabies virus, and even their poop comes with disease, so it’s hardly an animal that you’ll want hanging around for long.
How to get rid of a raccoon the successful way
If you call a professional, everything is thought of for you. Years of experience will be able to guide the professional to where the raccoon is hiding, where it’s nesting site will be, and also where the babies are likely to be hidden. Not just that, they’ll know what holes to look for in the exterior of your home - holes that are giving the animal access to your home. The expert will also know how to fill the holes and cracks to stop the animal from coming back again.
They’ll be able to give you advice on covering the garbage can, and not leaving leftovers out. These are basically a neon sign for a wild animal to the restaurant that is your house. And once they've found food one, they’ll come back again. This is definitely a case where prevention is better than the cure.