How to Stop Raccoons From Digging Up Your Potted Plants

Raccoons are hungrier than your typical omnivore. As notorious opportunistic eaters, coons will eat almost anything, and will go to great lengths to get what they want. Dumpsters, garbage cans, pet dishes, gardens, fruit trees, and even garage refrigerators are common meal tickets for raccoons. Being that it is nearly summer, raccoons are relishing in all the new flora available to them. As a result, many homeowners are finding their precious, carefully-curated garden containers and potted plants pillaged night after night. If this is happening to your plants, you can likely blame local raccoons.

Continue reading to learn how to stop raccoons from digging up your potted plants, plus some additional animal-proofing tips that will benefit you year-round.

Get Rid of Raccoons Indianapolis Indiana 317-875-3099
Get Rid of Raccoons Indianapolis Indiana 317-875-3099

Raccoons are an Omnivorous Species

The challenge with nuisance raccoon activity is the fact that it generally takes place at night, so all you see is the mess they leave behind in the morning. Raccoons are omnivorous, meaning they eat both meat and plant matter, including insects, fish, small lizards, small birds, eggs, fruit, vegetables, legumes, seeds, nuts, fungi, and more.

If you are growing something that is deemed tasty to a raccoon, which is basically anything edible aside from hot peppers—even if you have just planted fresh seeds, you can expect hungry raccoons to sniff them out. And they will not hesitate to yank plants and bulbs right out of the pot! You see, raccoons have an advantage with this because they are equipped with human-like paws that are very dexterous. They can dig, grip, maneuver, and pull plants easier than we can!

Inedible Plants are Still Attractive to Raccoons

Even if you are growing something that is not meant to be consumed, or a plant that raccoons hate, like hot peppers, menthol, and eucalyptus, they might still dig for it. This is because the enriched soil your flowers are planted in contains juicy grubs that raccoons eat like popcorn. They can smell these grubs and will track them down by pulling out your flowers and digging through the soil. Fortunately, there are ways to prevent raccoons from destroying all your potted masterpieces.

How to Raccoon-Proof Your Yard

To prevent raccoons from pillaging your potted plants, plus avoid attracting more nuisance wildlife to your property, you need to secure some boundaries. Start by moving all of your potted plants indoors at night, then returning them to their designated space in the morning. Raccoons are intelligent, and they will pick up on the fact that their favorite snacks are no longer available on your property.

You can also think about installing a chicken wire or a temporary fence to keep your pots and plants behind at night. Other ways to prevent raccoons from entering your property is to remove all water and food sources, including bird baths, fountains, pet food, squirrel feeders, and garbage cans. Be sure to also caulk all crevices and gaps in roof shingles, windows, under patios, and decks.

Are you looking for a more professional and advanced approach to long-term raccoon control? Contact Budget Animal Removal at 317-875-3099 to get rid of raccoons in Indianapolis, Indiana at a price you can afford. We serve residential and commercial clients.

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Top Recommended Raccoon-Proofing Strategies

Raccoons are known to use our homes and outdoor spaces as a source for food and shelter. Because they are excellent climbers and retain dexterous paws for gripping, clasping, and grabbing, raccoons are highly capable of accessing any area they choose, and even more capable of causing extreme damage and mayhem. If you live in a region with heightened raccoon activity, it would be wise to consider animal-proofing. Start by incorporating some preventative maintenance systems around your property to build a basic level of animal intrusion and tampering security.

Continue reading to learn some top-recommended animal-proofing strategies that will protect your home and property against nuisance raccoons.

Get Rid of Raccoons Indianapolis Indiana 317-875-3099
Get Rid of Raccoons Indianapolis Indiana 317-875-3099

How to Get Rid of Raccoons

There are several ideas homeowners and raccoon control specialists have thought of to keep raccoons away and stop them from getting inside our homes. Most of these remedies have proven to be quite effective as long as they are executed properly.  Never, under any circumstances, attempt to catch, trap, harm, or kill a raccoon.

If you already have raccoons in your house and need them removed, contact a licensed and insured Indianapolis critter control company for 24 hour emergency animal removal service for raccoons. They will use safe and humane methods to extract raccoons and transport them to a faraway habitat.

Animal Proofing Tips for Raccoon Control:

Homemade Raccoon Repellent

These homemade, nontoxic raccoon repellents do not harm raccoons, but they will irritate their senses and disgust their taste buds. Tastes, scents, and sensations that are most hated by raccoons include ground red pepper, ammonia, cinnamon, paprika, eucalyptus, menthol, and black pepper. Add these ingredients into a spray bottle filled with water, or simply sprinkle a mixture around the perimeter of your property and in areas of heightened raccoon activity.

Store-Bought Animal Repellent

If you do not wish to make your own repellent, there are a few store-bought products that work just as well. One such product is called, “Shake Away”. It is a granular predator urine-based product. You apply it the same as the homemade repellent mixtures.  It gives off the scent of predator urine, such as fox, coyote, and bobcat; making raccoons and other critters believe there is danger nearby. This product is worth the extra money because it stays in place longer. It will not wash right away in rain or bad weather. They do not smell or create a mess either.

Exterior Sealing and Fortification

Windows, porch cracks, garage doors, sheds, barns, and more need to be inspected to ensure there are no access areas or vulnerable spots. As mentioned before, raccoons have very dexterous paws and can manipulate door handles and pry open windows and more. It is vital to have a professional inspect your home entirely to be sure there are no access points that a raccoon can enter through. If there are, these spots need sealed right away. Included in this inspection are also roof shingles, crawl spaces, attics, and even children’s jungle gyms.

Environmental Modification

Environmental modification means making changes to your surrounding environment by removing anything that might attract raccoons to your premises, namely food, water, and shelter. For example, do not leave your trash or garbage outside overnight. Raccoons are nocturnal and will smell your trash from a mile away. This is like leaving out a free meal for the local raccoon colony. Always take trash out the morning of garbage pickup day. Also, do not leave pet food dishes outdoors. Raccoons love pet food because it is a protein-rich tasty meal to them. They love it and will remember to come back for it, night after night.

► Professional Raccoon Control Service

Are you looking for a more professional and advanced approach to long-term raccoon control? Contact Budget Animal Removal at 317-875-3099 to get rid of raccoons in Indianapolis, Indiana at a price you can afford. We serve residential and commercial clients.

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What is Eating the Cucumbers in My Garden?

Growing and managing a garden full of crops is not an easy task. In fact, it requires a lot of dedication, consistency, and exploration to be successful at growing fruits, veggies, legumes, and more. So, once you get the hang of things, and crops like tomatoes and cucumbers are popping up regularly, it can be more than disconcerting to have them gobbled up by pests just when you go to pick them. Many gardeners are asking if raccoons can be to blame for all their missing vegetables, namely cucumbers.

Continue reading and get the answer to this question, which by the way, is yes!

Protect Your Gardens From Nuisance Raccoons

A Raccoon’s Diet is Omnivorous

Raccoons are omnivores, which means they eat like humans. Everything from meat and fish, to vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, and more falls within a raccoon’s diet. So, if your cucumbers are coming up missing or nibbled-on, raccoons could very well be to blame, but so could several other animals.

You see, raccoons do not prefer the prickly vines and large leaves of a cucumber plant and tend to steer clear of them. In fact, many farmers have purposely planted cucumber plants around the perimeter of their corn fields to thwart raccoons from gobbling up their crops!

Yes, of course they will eat a cucumber if easily available to them, as well as a tomato, potato, lettuce, and more, but they are not likely to go out of their way to cross an overgrown prickly stalk of cucumbers. This is good news for those with generation cucumber plants that have grown large and abundant. But for new cucumbers and immature plants, the vulnerability level is higher.

Hire a Professional Raccoon Control Service

To find out whether or not raccoons are your cucumber culprits, you must do a little investigating. There are certain things you can do as a property owner to look for clues that suggest raccoon presence, but your best bet is a qualified Indianapolis IN raccoon control company. They retain the proper tools, knowledge, and resources to inspect your home, determine if raccoons are nearby, and provide the necessary services to exclude them from your property.

Do you need to get rid of nuisance raccoons in Indiana? Contact Budget Animal Removal at 317-875-3099 for professional critter control for raccoons in Indianapolis and its surrounding regions. We serve residential and commercial clients and offer animal cleanup services.

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Can I Contract an Infection From a Raccoon?

Wild raccoons are dangerous for many reasons, and pose a threat to humans, pets, lawns, gardens, structures, and more. But one of the most qualifying reasons why raccoons are so dangerous is that they are common carriers of various infectious diseases and illnesses. Although raccoons are notoriously known for the Rabies virus, there are many more diseases and infections that are just as dangerous to contract, for both humans and pets.

Continue reading to learn what types of illnesses and diseases you and your pets can contract from wild raccoons.

Indianapolis IN Raccoon Removal 317-875-3099
Indianapolis IN Raccoon Removal 317-875-3099

Raccoons Can Transmit Infectious Diseases and More

Rabies Virus

Raccoons are known to be common carriers of the Rabies virus. If the saliva, blood, or bodily fluid of an infected raccoon comes into contact with another mammal’s blood stream, they are at high risk of contracting the virus. For this reason, it is important to vaccinate your pets against the Rabies virus, as well as other potential illnesses they can contract. Your vet will have all this information for you. As for humans, if you are bitten by a rabid or infected raccoon, it is important to seek medical attention from your health care provider the same or next day. You will likely be administered a Rabies vaccine shot. Unfortunately, once a non-vaccinated dog or cat is exposed to the virus, there is no cure. 

Leptospirosis

Leptospirosis is another contagious disease known to be transmitted by wild raccoons. It is caused by the Leptospira bacteria, which is found and transmitted in raccoon urine. Most mammals are infected after coming into contact (eyes, throat, nose, skin, etc.) with water that has been contaminated with raccoon urine containing the bacteria. Dogs are mostly at risk of contracting Leptospirosis, which is why vaccinations are so vital to their health.

Distemper

Raccoon distemper comes from canine distemper, and is dangerous virus that can be passed along to pets but not humans. Also known as canine distemper, this virus is extremely contagious and common in large populations of raccoons. Signs of the virus initially appear flu-like, eventually maturing into a state of confusion and disorientation. If transmitted to a pet, it can cause acute illness and death. And unfortunately, there is no treatment once infected.

Other Infectious Diseases Transmitted By Raccoons

There is more to be concerned about when it comes to raccoon diseases. They can also transmit other ailments, including roundworm, parasites (i.e. coccidiosis), mange, lice, fleas, ticks, allergic reactions, and more.

Do you have a nuisance raccoon problem around your house or business? Contact Budget Animal Removal at 317-875-3099 for DNR licensed and insured raccoon removal and control services in Indianapolis, Indiana.

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Is Your Home Vulnerable to Raccoon Intrusion?
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