Raccoons are a natural part of most forests, but they can be pesky and destructive. They’re also intelligent and quick learners so it’s important to keep them off your deck with these simple tips.
Raccoons are a nuisance in many areas, and they can be difficult to keep out of your yard. Here are 9 simple ways to keep raccoons off of your deck.
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Raccoons may be found in almost every part of the United States. Many people may encounter raccoons scavenging for food in their communities, and since they are nocturnal species, they are more active at night.
Raccoons may have tried to get into your garbage cans at some point in the past. Raccoons hunting for food on people’s decks and patio areas are also a nuisance.
Nobody likes to go out onto their deck and discover that it has been raccoon-infested. Raccoons may be messy, and they’re also creatures you don’t want to come across.
Continue reading to find out how to keep raccoons off your deck. This should keep the raccoons at bay and allow you to enjoy your deck in peace.
What Attracts Raccoons to Decks?
Decks will attract a lot of raccoons because they can provide them with safe havens. Raccoons may occasionally interfere with your deck’s items, but they will also want to reside beneath your deck for protection.
Raccoons will have an easy place to remain warm as a result of this. It’ll also be a great breeding ground for raccoons, which you don’t want to deal with.
In many cases, they will have easy access to food as well. Raccoons will be in close proximity to meals such as nuts, seeds, insects, and even snakes if they stay under a deck.
It will be much more obvious why you should prevent raccoons from dwelling beneath your deck now that you understand why they do. Raccoons will be a nuisance to you, and you should do all you can to keep them away from your deck.
Thankfully, there are a variety of options available to you that will provide positive outcomes. Take a look at the alternatives below to see which ones make the most sense for your scenario.
1 – Do not leave pet food out in the open.
If you have a dog, you may feed it outdoors on occasion. This is very common, but it might be problematic if you leave pet food in the dog’s dish outside.
The pet food will act as a beacon, drawing the attention of the local raccoon population. Raccoons can smell pet food and are always looking for the simplest sources of food in the vicinity.
Raccoons will keep coming around to consume your pet food if you continue to leave it out like this. For a long time, some people did not know that raccoons were eating their food because they assumed it was being eaten by dogs.
If you want to keep raccoons away from your pet food, never leave it outside. You should only offer your dogs as much food as they need in one sitting, and any leftover food should be brought inside and stored in a sealed container.
2 – Secure Your Garbage Cans
Another item that can draw raccoons to the neighborhood is your garbage. Raccoons can smell garbage and will attempt all they can to tip your trash cans over so they can tear the bags apart and devour the remaining food within.
It’s horrible to think about this, and it’ll be much more disgusting to have to pick up rubbish that raccoons have ripped up. Taking the effort to securely secure your garbage cans is the finest thing you can do.
To begin, attempt to get trash cans that are less likely to be tipped over by raccoons. Some folks even link the trash cans to a cement-filled pole buried in the earth.
You are not required to do so, but you might purchase trash cans with locking lids. This should make it impossible for the raccoons to open the lids, no matter how hard they try.
If you want to keep utilizing your trash cans, you should consider purchasing a lid lock for them. These may effectively transform the lids into ones that lock and keep raccoons at bay.
It’s also a good idea to attempt to decrease the garbage’s odor as much as possible. If your waste is exceptionally nasty, you may wish to double-bag it.
Use a decent brand of waste bags that are thick and have odor-reducing characteristics at the very least. It should make things less appealing to the raccoon population in the area.
3 – Prevent Raccoons from Getting Under the Deck
Of course, it’s a good idea to attempt to prevent raccoons from getting beneath your deck in the first place. Depending on how your deck is built, this will either be simple or difficult to do.
Even if your deck doesn’t contain wood that extends all the way to the ground, you may lock items to prevent creatures from entering underneath it. To keep animals out of their decks, some homeowners employ chicken wire and steel mesh.
If you have wood that extends all the way down, check sure everything is secure and tight. Raccoons won’t be able to readily push their way below your deck area if you repair any weak planks.
You should also fill any cracks and holes you detect in the deck. Raccoons can squeeze through narrow apertures as small as four inches, which may come as a surprise.
It’s important to be alert and attempt to maintain your deck in good condition. If you make the appropriate repairs and alterations, raccoons will have a much harder time using the area under your deck.
4 – Keep Your Yard Clean
Raccoons may be deterred from visiting your yard if you clean it. Raccoons may eat a variety of objects in your yard, so keep an eye out for them.
For example, you may have trees that produce certain fruits and nuts. If you don’t take the time to clean up trash like this, it may become an attractive target for raccoons.
Don’t leave stuff lying about that might attract raccoons, and clean up your yard on a regular basis. There will be less items for raccoons to consume on your property if you are more aggressive in cleaning up yard waste.
Keep an eye out for anything that may be a raccoon’s meal. If you want to keep raccoons away, you may try removing the food sources.
Some people go so far as to avoid growing trees and plants that raccoons could eat. It’s up to you, however, to determine how far you want to go.
It’s also true that removing bush will make it more difficult for raccoons to come around. Raccoons need locations to hide and procreate, therefore bushy areas will sometimes be used by them.
Simply mowing the grass as regularly as possible can make your yard less appealing to raccoons. Raccoons will be deterred from coming around if the grass is kept short and the brush is picked up.
You should also attempt to cut overgrown plants so that raccoons don’t have a place to hide. It may be tiresome to do additional yard work, but it’s necessary if you want to keep raccoons at away.
5 – Remove Water Sources
Water supplies will be vital for raccoons, as you would think. Raccoons need water sources, therefore you should destroy any water sources on your property.
Raccoons will often drink from exposed pools and artificial fish ponds. When you’re afraid about raccoons, you don’t have to get rid of your pool, but you should keep it covered.
Raccoons will be unable to remove a decent pool cover, so you won’t have to worry. Artificial ponds and a variety of other water elements may also be covered.
You should also make sure that there are no leaking water fittings outside. For example, raccoons may seek out a leaking fixture near your home in order to grab a sip of water.
Investing a little effort to address items like that may make a significant impact. Make it as difficult as possible for raccoons to find a suitable place to drink water.
6 – Think about putting up a fence.
Raccoons may be deterred from entering your yard by fences. Raccoons, on the other hand, are excellent climbers, therefore you’ll need to construct your fence in a certain manner.
Some individuals use electric fence to keep raccoons out of their yards. However, this may seem harsh, and you may not want to take the chance of having anything like this on your home.
Putting up tall fences made of difficult-to-climb materials could help a little. It’s worth a chance, and if you’ve chosen to maintain producing veggies, it may do a good job of safeguarding a garden area.
Bright Lights (number 7)
Raccoons are scared of motion-sensitive lights, thus many people will install them. Raccoons like to hunt for food in the dark, thus they won’t want to approach locations that are lighted up.
Motion-sensitive lights are quite simple to install, and many people use them for reasons other than frightening away animals. They may also act as a deterrent, keeping potential burglars at away.
These lights will not be too costly, and they should provide enough protection for your house. They work effectively to make raccoons feel uneasy about approaching your home, which should deter them from attempting to reside under your deck.
8 – Sprinklers with Motion Detection
Using motion-sensitive sprinklers in your yard is a similar approach to the one mentioned above. When motion is detected, these sprinklers will turn on and spray the whole area with water.
This can effectively frighten raccoons away, preventing them from slinking about your home late at night. Some individuals have excellent results by combining these with motion-sensitive security lights.
You might use this as a deterrent for other animals than raccoons. As previously said, you may employ motion-sensitive technology to deter prospective burglars, and it can be effective in keeping your property secure.
9 – Urine of a Predator
Spraying predator urine is another useful tactic that people use to attempt to drive raccoons away from an area. Many different creatures are considered predators by raccoons, and raccoons are aware that they must be afraid of them.
If raccoons detect the scent of a predator’s urine, they will avoid the area. Raccoons want to make things simple for themselves, therefore they’ll avoid areas that seem to be potentially dangerous.
Predator urine sprays containing cougar or coyote pee are available. This sort of spray should deter raccoons from certain areas of your yard while also protecting your deck.
How to Get Rid of Raccoons
Now that you know how to keep raccoons away from your deck, it’s time to consider what to do if they’ve already made their presence known. You could have raccoons living beneath your deck right now, which means you’ll have to deal with the situation.
The first step is to be sure you’re dealing with a legitimate issue. You’ll have to find out how to tell whether you have raccoons on your property.
Keep an eye out for raccoon signs.
Before going any farther, it’s a good idea to search for evidence of raccoon activity in the vicinity. There are many distinct signals of raccoon behavior that are simple to recognize.
One of the most significant will be the disturbance of your trash cans. Raccoons are likely to be to blame if your trash cans have been knocked over and debris has been thrown around.
You may sometimes hear sounds coming from your deck. Running sounds, hissing, snarling, screaming, and even whistling may be heard if you listen carefully.
Raccoons are really rather bothersome since they are noisy at night and may create a variety of noises. If you hear sounds coming from beneath your deck, there’s a significant possibility that raccoons are currently dwelling there.
You might also look for raccoon tracks to see where they’ve gone. The prints aren’t always easy to see, and they might occasionally resemble minuscule human prints.
Raccoons will also dig burrow tunnels, which may cause structural damage. If you discover anything like this, you don’t want to wait too long to get rid of the raccoons.
Professionals should be contacted.
Calling a reputable pest eradication and removal service is the only safe approach to get rid of raccoons on your home. A pest control firm may be able to come out and kill the raccoons or remove them from your property, depending on the rules in your region.
You could have a choice on how the raccoons are treated. Some individuals choose to engage pest control services that utilize solely nonlethal techniques, but that is entirely up to you.
The main thing to remember is that pest control firms have the necessary equipment and competence to deal with the situation. They’ll be able to go beneath your deck and catch the raccoons without causing too much trouble.
If you attempt to manage it on your own, you may end up putting yourself in risk. Raccoons are known to spread infections, and most people wouldn’t be able to handle them in the first place.
Thankfully, you’re going to be able to get raccoon problems taken care of in a timely fashion when you Professionals should be contacted.. It shouldn’t cost you an exorbitant sum of money, and you’ll just be glad that the issue has been dealt with.
Last Thoughts
You already know what you need to do to keep raccoons off of your deck. It’s crucial to keep a look out for raccoon signals, but you should also apply effective deterrents to prevent issues from arising in the first place.
If you have good habits and don’t leave food out that raccoons can get into, then it’ll be less likely that you’ll have problems. When you do encounter issues with raccoons, it’s likely going to be best to Professionals should be contacted. to help you deal with things.
Hopefully, you’ll be able to take the necessary precautions to ensure that raccoons are never a major issue for you. You already know what you need to do to keep your deck secure; now it’s up to you to follow through.
The “raccoon latrine deterrent” is a product that can be used to keep raccoons from climbing on your deck. The product has been proven to work in many different ways and it’s easy to use.
Frequently Asked Questions
What can I put on my deck to keep the raccoons away?
A: There is no real answer to this question. But I recommend using a water bottle, a bucket of kitty litter, or spray paint.
What do raccoons hate the most?
A: Raccoons hate being touched or handled, they also do not like cages. They will fight back to defend themselves by biting and scratching their attacker
How can I stop raccoons from pooping on my deck?
A: This is a difficult question. Im sorry that I cannot help you with this, but perhaps something like motion-sensor lights or the noise of an alarm could deter raccoons from coming onto your property.
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