Raccoons carry a variety of diseases and bacteria that can spread to humans and pets through contact or ingestion. They are also known carriers of rabies.
It is possible to avoid raccoons by keeping your yard clean and removing food sources such as pet waste, fallen fruit or garden produce. This can help keep raccoons from raiding trash cans or entering your house. Contact Raccoon Removal Texas now!
Raccoons are very intelligent animals and can do a lot of damage to your property. They have the ability to lift shingles, remove lids from garbage cans, and open doors. They also carry canine distemper and rabies, which could potentially be harmful to unvaccinated pets or humans. Their feces can contaminate soil and water supplies, spread parasites like ticks and fleas, and cause a variety of illnesses, including tularemia (tick fever).
The first step to wildlife control is to eliminate attractants. This includes removing garbage, bird feeders, and other potential nesting areas from your property.
You should also place barriers to prevent them from getting on your property. This may include fences, rock piles, and sloping ground. These steps can help keep raccoons out of your yard and garden.
If you notice signs of raccoons on your property, you should take action as soon as possible. The longer raccoons stay on your property, the more likely they are to cause damage and create nuisances.
One of the most common problems that raccoons cause is in the attic. They tear up insulation and use various points in the attic as latrines. This can contaminate and stain drywall, ruin the heat efficiency of your roof, and lead to diseases like tularemia (tick fever).
Raccoons are able to enter homes through cracks, holes, or damaged soffits. They can also break through weakened walls and other structures. In addition to sealing entry points and repairing any structural damage, you should also use repellents like ammonia-soaked rags near all entrance points.
If you are noticing damage to your home or attic, you should call a professional for raccoon removal as soon as possible. They can identify all the potential entry points and make necessary repairs to ensure that raccoons cannot get in again.
The most effective way to get rid of raccoons is by using cage traps near the entry point. The traps should be baited with fruit, pet food, canned fish, or professional paste lures and baits. Because raccoons can carry rabies, they should not be relocated from the area where they were caught.
Relocating the Raccoons
Raccoons are wild animals, and they will often move into your home in search of warmth and shelter. Unfortunately, it’s not always possible to lure them out and the resulting damage can be extensive. If a raccoon decides to make its way into your house, it can break things by running around and chewing, or it could fall through ceilings and walls. The best solution is to simply leave the animal alone and open all doors and windows. The raccoon may eventually find its way out of the home itself, or it may just wander away and never come back.
If you can’t get the raccoon to leave, there are some humane harassment techniques that can inspire it to leave on its own. You can use bright lights, loud music, clapping and stomping, bitter-tasting repellents like Bittrex, or even a drenching with ammonia or peppermint oil. This should be done around dusk, and it may take several days to convince a raccoon that the home is no longer an appealing place to live.
You should consult your local wildlife authorities for details on how to relocate raccoons. In many areas, it’s illegal to relocate wildlife without the proper permit, so you must follow all guidelines to ensure that you don’t face fines or legal repercussions. A full-service pest control company will usually have a division dedicated to removing wildlife, and they can help you get rid of the problem quickly and safely.
One of the most common mistakes people make when attempting to get rid of a raccoon themselves is trying to relocate it. They think they’re doing the raccoon a favor by taking it out of the city and releasing it in the woods, but that’s not the case. Urban raccoons typically have much higher population densities than those in wild forests, and they are also more familiar with humans and the diseases we spread. Raccoons can transmit salmonella, E coli, leptospirosis, roundworm, and even rabies, which puts both people and pets at risk.
After completing the exclusion and habitat management steps outlined above, you’ll want to monitor your property for signs of ongoing raccoon activity. This may include opening trash cans, finding five-toed tracks in your yard, or noticing a hole in your roof. It’s important to address these issues early on so that the raccoons will stop using your home as their new den and food source.
Removing the Damage
Raccoons are more destructive than other nuisance wildlife pests, and can leave behind a costly mess and structural damage. It is crucial to have a raccoon infestation corrected as quickly as possible, in order to avoid expensive property repairs, health issues, and higher energy bills.
A professional wildlife removal expert can conduct a thorough inspection of the property, checking for signs of an invasion and identifying entry points that are favoured by raccoons. In addition, the professional can advise you on effective preventive measures, such as covering attic vents with heavy hardware cloth, removing sources of food left outdoors overnight, and securing trash can lids.
Once a raccoon makes its way inside your home, it can leave claw marks and other damage around the entry point. They can also tear insulation from walls or ductwork, and often create holes in the roof to make their way into attics and basements. Raccoons are able to pry open vents and rip off shingles to gain access to the roof, so it is important that any gaps or cracks are repaired as soon as you discover them.
Raccoons can also cause damage to gardens, lawns, and outdoor structures like bird feeders. They will dig up and displace soil, as well as destroy garbage cans and other debris. Their paws, which they use more like hands, can even turn sod upside down and move it from one area to another. In addition, raccoons can carry fleas and ticks, which are a threat to humans, dogs, and cats.
When a raccoon tries to raise its young in an attic, it will tear through any materials that are not wood or metal. It can also chew through drywall, leaving behind a hole large enough to fit through, or it can pull down and tear the entire ceiling of an attic. In both cases, the damaged areas need to be repaired and sanitized in order to avoid further damage or contamination.
As the most common carrier of rabies in New York and the surrounding region, raccoons are a serious health threat to both people and pets. They are also a major carrier of bacteria and disease, spreading them through their feces and bites. A raccoon bite can be deadly, and it is critical that you contact a reputable professional for all raccoon related problems.
Preventing Raccoons from Returning
Raccoons are not inherently violent or dangerous, but they do carry diseases and bacteria and can cause significant damage to a home or business when they become a nuisance. They also tend to make messes and destroy gardens and trash cans, and their dens can lead to structural damage and water intrusion. If you notice a raccoon living in or under your property, call a professional to help remove them.
A full-service wildlife removal company will use humane trapping methods to capture the raccoons and relocate them to a natural area according to local laws. They will also perform exclusion services to keep raccoons from coming back to your home or garden. This involves closing off entry points and removing potential den sites, such as tree branches hanging close to your roof or the ground.
They will also use electric fencing around the property to prevent raccoons from accessing your garden or other areas of the yard where food may be available. This type of fence should have two strands and be about 6″ high to prevent raccoons from climbing over it. If you have nut or fruit trees, you can also try to protect the produce by routinely picking up fallen nuts and fruits, and using repellents on the plants to discourage raccoons from eating them.
In many cases, raccoons get inside homes or buildings through pet doors, damaged vents and screens, and torn soffits. Once they are inside, they can do a lot of damage by chewing and gnawing, staining drywall with urine, destroying insulation and tearing through electrical wiring. They also leave behind feces, which can lead to rabies and other diseases.
You can try to deter raccoons from coming into your home by keeping garbage cans tightly closed, securing compost piles, and not leaving pet food outside. You can also put out an electric deterrent like a strand of two-strand fence and spray a chemical repellent on plants and trees. The effectiveness of repellents varies, so you should try multiple techniques and reapply them as needed. You should also avoid strategies like poison, which is inhumane and can be dangerous to pets and children who come into contact with it.