Raccoons are common animals found in many parts of the world. They are known to be very mischievous, but they also have a reputation for being very furry and cute.
They have a habit of eating anything they can find and that includes garbage, pet food, and even human food. Raccoons will often dig through trash cans or dumpsters looking for their next meal. In the process they will leave behind piles of raccoon poop in your yard or garden, and nobody wants that!
Raccoons are fun to watch in your yard until they start to use it as a latrine. Raccoon scat, poop, feces, deuce, or whatever you want to call it is a huge problem for yardscaping as well as a major health hazard.
Many raccoons carry rabies and other diseases in their poop. And while they may be cute, they can spread deadly diseases along the lines of rabies and roundworm to humans if you come into contact with their feces. And what is even more frightening is that raccoons can also infect your yard with dangerous bacteria along the lines of E coli and salmonella. So if you have a pet or small child in your house, it’s important to keep them safe from these nasty critters!
How to Deter Raccoons from Your Yard
As they always say, prevention is better than cure. The most effective way to make your yard raccoon poop-free is to keep raccoons out of your yard! And the best way to do that is to take away everything that is attracting them into your yard, and make it hard for them to even enter.
Raccoons will not exert too much effort in prying open a trash can that is tightly sealed, nor will they even approach the cans if a rodent repellent bag is in the can.
If you, or better yet, the whole neighborhood, adopt these measures, then trash would become inaccessible and the raccoons will migrate to the next neighborhood. Better them than us!
Ensure the Trash Bins are Secured
To secure our trash bins we need to lock them in place, or seal their lids shut with a heavy weight. This is so that the raccoons aren’t able to shuffle around the garbage and make a mess of it all.
If you have space to lock your bins in where they can be inaccessible to raccoons and other critters, that would be a better idea. The goal is to take away what’s attracting them to your yard.
Use Rodent-Repellent Trash Bags
If you’re a bit sceptical about using heavy weights on your bins or you don’t have a space to safely store and lock them away from raccoons, then your next best bet are rodent-repellent trash bags.
Rodent-repellent trash bags utilize scented technology that allows the bags to have a distinct repellent smell to rodents such as raccoons.
Raccoons, like most animals, have a heightened sense of smell, which gives them the ability to smell potential food from far away. The downside is they also have strong aversions to certain scents, and the only way for them to not smell them is to run as far away as they can!
Install Proper Garden Fencing
This might be stating the obvious, but to effectively scare off critters and raccoons, proper garden or yard fencing should be your number one priority. Raccoons can jump to about 10 feet high, which means you would need a pretty tall fence to ward them off. Speak to a fencing or gardening expert for advice.
It would be safe to say that this is the most effective, most harmless, and most logical solution there is!
Block Entry Points
As well as using proper garden fencing, Raccoons love small dark places. Keep crevices on any house ledges, dark places under the porch, holes, and chimneys blocked off. Raccoons will have no reason to loiter around your garden if they have no where to be comfortable.
Plant Critter-Inedible Plants
If you’re some kind of a gardener who is enthusiastic about planting different varieties of plants and you are sick and tired of having these raccoons invade your plant babies, you could try planting nasty tasting plants that could potentially ward them off.
Marigolds are known to taste really nasty. In addition, plants like squash that can be planted around corn plants, have vines that are prickly which can act as protection.
However, we suggest you do your own research in terms of what plants are safe for you and your own pets.
Needless to say, this solution is hitting two birds with one stone. You get a beautiful garden, and you don’t get anymore raccoon poop piles!
Install an Automated Motion-Sensing Sprinkler System
The goal with an automated motion-sensing sprinkler system is that it would repel raccoons by means of spraying water at them. Most critters and rodents, including raccoons, are not necessarily afraid of water, but any sort of surprise “water sprinkle attacks” is enough to make them jump and sprint away. Scare them off before they even think of it!
Install a Hot Pepper-Repellent Spray
There are natural repellents that one can make using hot peppers. These should be available commercially as well. Hot pepper-repellent spray should work against raccoons in such a sense that they would avoid the spicy or hot scent and flavor that emanates from the hot peppers.
Use Other Smells Racoons Hate
There are a list of smells racoons hate below that you could try putting around your garden. Be aware, I’m not sure if all are completely effective as in the case of Ammonia, it could be regarded as a short term solution. Racoons will eventually find ways to avoid the smell.
- Ammonia
- Epsom Salt
- Peppermint oil
- Garlic Juice
- Onion And Pepper Mix (Boil water and mix onion and pepper. Spray around garden)
Make Some Noise
We’re not going to have a party here, unfortunately. (We probably should when you have successfully gotten rid of all the raccoons.) But making some noise, like installing some wind chimes, can effectively scare off critters and raccoons for the time being.
It’s not very hard to spook raccoons, and others have said that even a radio playing random tunes is enough to keep them away. This is because the presence of noise means the potential presence of a predator, and they would likely be wanting to avoid them.
Use Ultra Sonic Sounds
Like using scents, research is inconclusive if ultra sound actually works for deterring wild animals. However, you can always experiment and try adding some ultra sonic devices to your garden. The high pitch sound will irritate any racoon that decides to take a visit.
Keep Your Yard Food-Free
You might have been chilling in your yard while having a hotdog or a burger, and you might have never noticed you have left some crumbs or pieces of meat. You might even think it’s OK to leave them because you want to attract birds and feed on your crumbs. But you might have never thought that they may attract raccoons and other critters too!
Ensuring your yard is food-free will not only keep your yard clean, but will also render your yard “unattractive” to raccoons. Because why would they waste their time wandering about if they don’t smell food?
It would also be helpful to remove any bird feeders that you may have, especially if they are positioned where a raccoon could just jump to them. You’re only downside to this is if you like birds, there’s a chance you might not get any more visits from them.
Scatter Pet Feces
To fight fire with fire, what a glorious way to go forth! Kidding aside, pet poop scattered around your yards will effectively repel other animals, most especially the raccoons.
Animals often use their poop and urine to mark their territories, and if your pets effectively “mark their territory” it is quite possible that raccoons and other pests would avoid the area marked by your pet feces and urine.
Worst Comes to Worst: Trap Them
If you have exhausted all of the previous solutions and you are still (the universe forbid) getting raccoons in your yard, it’s probably time to ring a professional and set up traps.
Normally, you would contact pest control and they would be more than happy to set up these traps and take care of your raccoon problem.
We do not recommend you do this yourself, as raccoons are capable of attacking you if they feel threatened. Raccoons may carry deadly diseases, such as rabies. A professional would have more field experience, would be able to implement best practices and ensure everybody is safe, including the raccoons!
Install Motion Sensor Lights
Racoons are naturally nocturnal animals. So any light will be a nuisance and distract racoons from pooping in your garden. A quick startle and jump, and hopefully the critter won’t be back again. However, like ultra sound and using some scents, motion sensor lights can be hit or miss. Racoons are smart, and may eventually realize the light does not harm them.
Why do these solutions work?
These solutions work, proven and tested, because these act as repellents in one way or another against the raccoons. Raccoons are smart animals, but we are smarter than they are, and hence can outsmart them in many ways using these tactics and methods.