Raccoons might look like cute and friendly animals, but they are not fun houseguests. They can do serious damage to your home, and also carry diseases. To ensure you don’t get raccoons living in your home, here are five preventative steps you should take.
1. Don’t Leave Food or Garbage in Your Yard
Raccoons are initially attracted to homes because of food or garbage they find in the yard. They’re smart animals; they’ll quickly locate the original source of the food—your home—and try and gain entry for a more permanent source of food. If you’re leaving food or garbage in your yard on a regular basis, you’re extending an invitation to raccoons to frequent your property and make your home a regular haunt.
Another tip: don’t leave pet food outside either. A raccoon will eat anything and regularly finding pet food outside is enough of a reason for them to return.
2. Clear Debris Off Your Roof
Similar to leaving food in your yard, leaving debris on your roof is another accidental invitation extended to raccoons that can lead to more permanent infestation problems. Debris like sticks or leaves collecting on your roof or in the eaves is a great place for wildanimals to establish a nest. While this is itself may not seem overly dangerous, a raccoon that has found a safe and comfortable place on top of your roof will almost always try to find a way in at some point.
3. Cover Your Plumbing Stack
Plumbing stacks provide an ideal entry point for the raccoon that wants to become a permanent guest in your home. In some homes, builders have installed plumbing stacks by creating a large square hole in the roof to accommodate the pipe, which is then covered with rubber matting to seal up the gaps. For a racoon, which has razor sharp claws and is an expert digger, this rubber matting doesn’t provide much of a barrier into your home. They can quite easily break through the material to provide a convenient entry point. Your best defense against them entering through the plumbing stack hole is covering the gap with a heavy gauge steel screening.
4. Close Your Chimney Damper
Raccoons are agile creatures and can climb down a chimney in a cinch. If you don’t have a damper, they have easy and direct access into your home. Make sure that your damper is closed whenever you’re not using your fireplace to ensure that this barricade is in place. You should also make sure to maintain and replace chimney dampers when necessary.
If you hear whining noises above the damper, you most likely have raccoons. Mothers like to keep their babies in the chimney because it’s a tightly enclosed and warm place. Making loud noises is often enough to scare the mother and her babies from their hiding place. Don’t light a fire as a means of scaring them out; the mother is unlikely to be able to remove all her babies in time and you could do serious harm to the animals.
5. Do Routine Checks for Entry Points
A raccoon only needs the tiniest hole or the slightest weakness in structure to find a way inside. Your best chance of keeping them out is making sure those weaknesses don’t exist in the first place. Maintain your roof, house panelling, and foundation. The best option is asking a wildlife removal service to do a thorough inspection of your home; they are aware of all the different places a raccoon will look to get in and can help you safeguard your home against unwanted visitors.
Do you need wildlife removal services? Request a quote today!