Getting Rid of Racoons

How to Get Rid of Racoons

How to get rid of racoons that are causing you problems in the city or in the country.

How to Get Rid of Racoons

A person recently posed the following question: I have a raccoon problem and live in the city. Any recommendations on how to catch/exterminate it?

Yes, we certainly have some suggestions on how to get rid of racoons. There are several tactics that range from hunting, trapping, reinforcing a where they’re trying to access, and a wide variety of deterrents that range from essential oils to pee. Seriously. Unfortunately there’s not a one size fits all solution. Racoons are smart, and every racoon is different, so your tactics may need to vary for how you get rid of your racoon problem.

About Racoons

Raccoons can be from sixteen to twenty eight inches long, and adults can weigh from 10 to 60 lbs. Raccoons are extremely adaptable. They’re originally a forest creature, but have been able to thrie in mountains, marshes, cities, farms, and most other places as well. They’re omnivores, so they’ll eat plants, animals, and bugs. Because of this, people have issues with raccoons getting in their trash, in their gardens, and getting into their animals.

Racoons and how to get rid of them

Study the Problem Racoon

Racoons are smart and are known to trick and out think people having problems with them. How does it get in to the area its causing a problem in? You may need to set up some trail cameras to watch what’s going on. We believe all farmers, homesteaders, and preppers should have some trail cameras. They’re extremely versatile. A trail camera can show you its pattern. You can also start to get an idea of how this specific racoon thinks. Racoons are wily and smart. Seeing how they move and problem solve will help you learn how to out smart and get rid of the racoons. Trail cameras have also become less expensive in recent years with technology advances.

Another thing to check are the raccoon’s tracks. If you can follow its tracks, you can see where it comes from, where it goes, and can plan accordingly, from knowing where to set up a trail camera, or where to set a trap. Once you figure out where its coming in, you can figure out how to outsmart the racoon, and get rid of the problem.

Reinforce the area to keep them out

Where are you trying to keep them out from? If you trying to keep racoons out of your attic, you’ll want to block off all vents. If you’re trying to keep them out of a chicken coop, you’ll want to make sure it can’t get in.

Most people don’t realize that an adult racoon can fit through a hole as small as 3″. When choosing your material and designing your defenses to keep them out, remember that ability. The holes in chicken wire are small enough to keep them out. Because of that, we recommend chicken wire over areas they’re getting into, where possible. Make sure that there is no hole even close to 3″ to keep racoons out of an area.

Trapping Racoons

Live catch traps

Live catch box traps are the most common choice people choose for how to get rid of racoons. You stick bait inside, a racoon goes in and triggers the trap, and you’re done. The most common baits people have success with are cat food or tuna. You need to bait it with something real stinky. Other common choices are hard boiled eggs, stinky cheese, or spam. The more it smells like garbage the more it attracts them.

Racoon Foot Trap

If you’ve read Where the Red Fern Grows, the grandpa tells the boy to bore a hole and put a thing inside to catch a racoon. It’ll stick it’s paw in and won’t be able to pull it out once it’s grabbed on to what’s inside, but it won’t let go. And just like that, you’ve caught him. It seems silly, but it worked in the book, and it works in real life.

Conibear Traps

Conibear traps are kill traps. They snap shut on the body of the animal with incredible force, breaking the neck or spine of the animal, killing it very quickly. These are commonly used to catch beavers or muskrats. If you live in a city, or have pets of your own, you don’t want to explain why Fido or Garfield is dead, all because you were trying to get rid of your problem racoons. If you live out in the country and are able to specifically target the racoons with little to no risk of any other animals being caught, you can try a conibear trap. It’s not what we recommend, but if you’ve got one lying around, go for it.

Leg Traps

If you don’t have pets in your backyard and it’s fenced in set a few leg traps. Put it along its path and put some bait by it and wait.

Dispatching Trapped Racoons

In my area it’s a stiff fine if caught relocating a racoon. It is actually the law that you must kill any racoon that you catch. Because of this, you may need to poison it or drown it if you can’t shoot it or have animal control take it away.

Hunting Nuisance Racoons

Our first weapon choice would either be a 22 or a 17 HMR for taking out racoons. Both of these are clean and simple and can get the job done. If you needed to though, you could really use a shotgun, or even your deer hunting rifle. A lot of that depends on where you live.

If you have neighbors close to you, I think it’d be between either an air rifle or a 22 loaded with subsonic rounds, or suppressed. Both of these options are sufficiently quiet to not upset the neighbors, especially because you’re most likely to have your hunting encounter in the middle of the night.

Because you’ll be hunting in the middle of the night, we recommend using motion detector lights. If you’re watching, they’ll trigger the light, and it’ll be pretty obvious where they’re at.

If you’ve tracked it or patterned it with your trail camera, you’ll know right where to set up. You will want to check with any state laws before you go to get rid of your problem racoon.

How to Get rid of Racoons if you Live in the City

Call animal control to get rid of racoons

Some animal control agencies will come and help you remove problem racoons. If they won’t come take care of it for you, they will often be able to give you advice both on recommendations for how to get rid of the racoons, and they can advise you on local laws you’ll need to be aware of for trying to trap or exterminate the racoon.

There are a few different things to consider when it comes to getting rid of racoons within city limits. There are city and state laws that relate to racoons specifically, traps and trapping, and using weapons. We advocate for doing things within the bounds of the law wherever possible, and animal control can help you do that.

Shooting Racoons in City Limits

Using a crossbow is a good option. If you are able to get even a little elevation, which isn’t hard , by pointing down the crossbow bolt will not go anywhere other than a few inch in the ground. If you want to be even more quiet shooting a racoon in town, I’d recommend a pistol crossbow instead of a full crossbow. It can shoot much quieter, and still has 50-80 lbs of power. It’ll get the job done, and it’s one of my favorite alternative weapons to guns.

Another good option is an air rifle. Gamo makes a slick 22 caliber air rifle that shoots subsonic, and is accurate, but still packs enough of a punch to take out a racoon. It also has the Whisper Fusion technology, which is how Gamo makes it even quieter, which makes it a good option for dispatching nuisance raccoons.

Scare Racoons Away

Some people have used coyote urine as a deterrent and have had good results. Trappers use this stuff to lure coyotes in to traps. This will be effective if coyotes in the area prey regularly on raccoons, though not as effective as blocking their access or eliminating them. It seems most raccoons have a natural Where the Red Fern Grows instinct that makes them just dislike canines. Other rodents are also repelled by coyote urine. You can buy predator pee, like coyote or fox urine, and spread it around the area you want to protect. Trappers use this stuff all the time. Just note that it may initially upset your chickens as well.

A less stinky alternative is a peppermint oil solution. There’s a product called Rodent Sheriff Pest Control which is a fancy Peppermint Spray for all the essential oil lovers out there. They claim that rodents just don’t like the peppermint smell, and that its 100% safe. It actually has over 11,000 reviews, though there is some speculation as to how well it will keep raccoons out of your chicken coop.

Get a motion water sprinkler to scare racoons

A motion sensing sprinkler can really deter animals. They work on racoons, deer, and a variety of other nuisance critters, and they don’t hurt them. Our go to sprinkler for this is the Yard Enforcer. It’s popular and proven to get the job done.

Get a dog to get rid of racoons

One person commented that they hadn’t had any problems with racoons until their German Shepherd passed away. Dogs tend to bark when things aren’t right, so even if the dogs don’t scare off the racoons, you’ll be alerted and you can go scare them off.

Hiring Professionals

If all else fails, you may need to hire a professional to help get rid of your racoons. I’ve mentioned it already, but racoons are really smart. Sometimes you need a professional to help counter that. You can find exterminators or professional trappers who can both help you get rid of nuisance racoons.

Conclusion

Racoons can look cute, but they can make a mess and do a lot of damage. I personally think they’re kind of cool, but I don’t want them near where me or my animals live, and you just need to get rid of them. Whether you choose to hunt them, trap them, reinforce against them, or attempt to scare them away, we hope you win your fight against these trash pandas.

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