Raccoons can be a problem all year long, causing severe damage to homes and property. Raccoons have adapted to living in urban environments and they aren’t shy about moving right into your home and helping themselves around your home and property. A-Tex Pest Management will share a little more about raccoons and the problems they can cause and how you can both control and prevent their intrusion.
What Are Raccoons Looking for in Your Home & Yard?
Raccoons often invade homes as they look for shelter, food or water. They are known for pushing over trash cans and ripping into garbage bags seeking leftovers. Raccoons will feed on bird food, dog or cat food, and pretty much anything else they can find. For yards or homes that leave food out for their pets or even bird feeders to draw the sweet song of birds, they are in fact feeding raccoons. Raccoons remember where food is and will return or live where they know a regular food source can be found. For those who have water features or even a leaking hose or water line outside, a raccoon will come. They can be aggressive in their need for water.
Raccoon Attic Damage
They also will invade and move into attic spaces. Many female raccoons will give birth and rear their young in attics for the warmth, protection, and food that it offers. They will also live under the foundations of raised platform homes, or under sheds or woodpiles. Raccoons are diverse in their preferred living environments. They will chew, claw, or climb anywhere they can find shelter. Raccoons are known for peeling back skin metal roofing sheets or bending attic vents to get into the attic space, not to mention chewing and clawing through wood panels or drywall to get into human structures. Raccoons typically reproduce February through March where the kits “or baby raccoons” will stay with their mother throughout winter. However, when the kits mature they don’t go very far from where they were born. Once a living environment has been established, raccoons can become a permanent resident.
How to Keep Raccoons Off Your Roof & Away from Your Backyard & Garden
To help prevent raccoons from invading your home or yard, the first major step is not to feed or provide a water source. Never leave pet food outside if at all possible. If you do need to leave food out, do it for short periods of time. Make sure to keep all plumbing repaired and leak-free. Never leave trash outside. Keep the trash cans inside the garage or in other areas not exposed to raccoons. Repellents such as motion sensors help. However, sometimes raccoons can become accustomed to them and they may lose their effect. There are some scented repellents that help deter raccoons that can be sprayed around fences or property lines. Scented repellents will need to be reapplied after every rainstorm or when exposed to water. Electrical wiring on the top and bottom areas around fencing or block walls are known to be effective in keeping raccoons away from homes. When raccoons do become a problem, it is best to seek professional assistance. Raccoons are known to become aggressive and can carry diseases and rabies. When you have a raccoon problem, pest control companies will help capture or trap them.
Raccoon Pest Inspections, Control, Removal & More in Austin, Round Rock, Leander, Pflugerville & Cedar Park, Texas
A-Tex Pest Management can help control wildlife and other pests that threaten your home. For your entire pest control needs, contact A-Tex Pest Management today.