Removing Raccoons from Your Backyard: A Guide
Raccoons, with their masked faces and agile bodies, are a common sight in many gardens. While they can be charming to observe, their presence can often lead to problems, such as rummaging through bins and damaging plants. Here's a guide to help you manage raccoons in your garden.
Raccoons have a varied diet, with a particular fondness for sweet foods. Vegetables and fruits like corn, peas, potatoes, melons, strawberries, and grapes, as well as berries and grapes, are all appealing to them. Interestingly, they also show a preference for certain meats, such as chicken wings, tuna fish, chicken skin, sardines, and chicken nuggets.
If you're struggling to keep raccoons out of your garden, there are several methods you can try. One approach is to make the environment less appealing to them. You can do this by sprinkling wood ashes, adding blood meal to garden beds, mixing garlic and chili powder, spreading human or dog hair where raccoon activity is observed, adding lights to the backyard, and making a liquid pepper repellent by mixing hot sauce or cayenne pepper with water and spraying it around the yard.
Another method is the use of live traps. However, it's crucial to check your state laws first, as it is illegal in some states to trap and relocate raccoons. If it is allowed, be aware that some states may not permit animal trapping for relocation.
The best bait to trap raccoons is not definitively known, as people have used various baits successfully. Some popular options include marshmallows, peanut butter, canned fish, boiled eggs, and even sweets like marshmallows, black licorice, cookies used in banana pudding, peanut butter on a cookie, Little Debbie or Hostess little cherry pies, small size powdered donuts, honey buns, M&M's, and chocolate.
It's important to note that it's not recommended to poison raccoons due to potential harm to other animals in the food chain. Additionally, if you're using cat food as bait, ensure to keep cats away from traps to avoid trapping them.
Remember, raccoons are intelligent creatures and may adapt to the methods you use to deter them. Patience and persistence are key when dealing with these furry visitors.
In conclusion, several methods exist to get rid of raccoons visiting a garden, including making the environment unpleasant, creating a habitat for them, or trapping and relocating them (with state laws being considered). Whatever method you choose, always ensure to prioritise the safety and wellbeing of the raccoons and other animals in your garden.
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