Raccoons aren’t just nuisances notorious for their love of nighttime trash can raids—they’re also serious wildlife pests with the potential to carry rabies, salmonella, and other diseases. They can even cause property damage. With these pests posing distinct safety issues, you don’t want to spot raccoons around your home or business, and you definitely don’t want one making its way into your building.
Especially since they’re not exceptionally uncommon pests, it can be hard to pinpoint what might be attracting raccoons to your space or what you can do to make your place less attractive to them. To help you narrow down what could attract raccoons to your Florida property, the Critter Control crew has collected a list of raccoon attractants you may not have considered.
What Attracts Raccoons?
Like many pests in Florida, raccoons are generally attracted to conditions conducive to providing food or shelter. No wonder the trash can is a famous Florida raccoon favorite! Along with unsealed trash cans, here are some potential attractions you should consider when troubleshooting to figure out what’s drawing raccoons to your property.
1. Pet Food
Who doesn’t love an easy, free meal? Raccoons certainly do! When you regularly leave pet food out overnight, you might be unintentionally feeding the neighborhood raccoons and drawing them back to your place for more the next time they want to grab a bite. When possible, try to feed pets indoors, or at least be careful to take pet food in overnight to help make your place less appealing to raccoons.
2. Water Features
Where you see a tranquil water feature, raccoons might just see the perfect spot for a refreshing sip of water. Because they can be an easy-to-access source of (relatively) fresh water, water features, fountains, pools, and ponds might be making the area around your home or business more raccoon-friendly. Along with these water sources, raccoons can also be attracted to the water in puddles or other containers, like dog water bowls. If possible, try to remove or cover water sources overnight to make your space less of a raccoon oasis.
3. Pilfer-Ready Gardens
Keep an eye out for the food sources raccoons might find in your lawn. These pests may be coming your way to pilfer through your garden, feast on berry bushes, or even just pick up nuts and fruits falling off your trees. While these natural attractions make it a bit harder to keep raccoons away, you can try using netting, electric fences, or even just thorny bushes to help protect any produce you’re growing from raccoon invaders.
4. Good Hiding Spots
Raccoons love to have a great place to scurry to for shelter, especially if those places are nice and dark. Look out for potential hiding places, like spaces underneath tree roots, crannies under your deck or porch, sheds with gaps for entry, or abandoned rodent dens. Where possible, block off potential raccoon hiding places and keep your outdoor areas well lit.
5. Lawn Grubs
You might not have thought of it, but lawn grubs might be acting as a little protein snack for neighborhood raccoons. Especially if you’ve been noticing signs that raccoons are tearing up your yard, it’s possible that a scrumptious population of lawn grubs is bringing raccoons your way. Typically the best course of action in this case will be to try and reduce the number of grubs in your lawn. Companies that offer lawn pest management may be able to help you with this.
How To Get Rid of Raccoons in Florida
Now that you have some idea of what attracts raccoons, you can take some preventive measures to help make your property less attractive to them. What if it’s too late and you already have a thriving raccoon population based out of your workplace or home? How do you get rid of raccoons in or on your Florida property?
Because raccoons can be quite dangerous to come across, raccoon control is best left to wildlife control professionals. Often, pest professionals will remove raccoons through live trapping. Plus, pest professionals can help you with preventive raccoon control measures called pest exclusion to help keep raccoons off your property in the future.
Florida Raccoon Control and Exclusion With Critter Control
Looking for Florida raccoon control? The pest control experts at Critter Control of Tampa can help you combat your raccoon or other wildlife problems. We proudly offer excellent raccoon control in Tampa, FL, and beyond.
Our expert team can do it all, from thorough inspections of your property to gauge the gravity of your raccoon infestation to carrying out preventive exclusion services and live-trapping raccoons. To get a free service estimate or have your Florida raccoon control questions answered by our team, just contact us.
