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How to Identify and Get Rid of Raccoons in the Garden

Raccoons might be cute, but they’re no good for your garden: here are tips on how to remove them from your yard.

Written By: Catherine Boeckmann Executive Digital Editor and Master Gardener

Got raccoons raiding your garden like it’s their personal buffet? These masked troublemakers may be cute, but they’re clever, persistent, and incredibly destructive. If you’re trying to figure out how to get rid of raccoons, you’re not alone. From snacking on sweet corn to turning over trash cans, raccoons are notorious for causing backyard chaos. Here’s how to identify raccoons and get rid of them before they turn your garden into their playground.

What Are Raccoons?

Raccoons (Procyon lotor) have masks over their eyes because they could rob even a bank vault. These resourceful animals are second in persistence and imagination to no other animal (unless it’s a squirrel at a bird feeder).

Raccoons are great climbers, swimmers, jumpers, and runners. Their five-toed paws make them very dexterous, and their agility can allow them to outsmart every human concoction used to deter them. If they aren’t breaking into your garden, they might try to climb into your chimney to use it as a den.

Raccoons do not hibernate during the winter, but they will live in dens for periods of severe weather, causing them to lose a lot of their body fat in northern areas. They often live in hollow trees during the warm part of the year. Populations of raccoons often include many youngsters, and families will stay together for about a year.

What Do Raccoons Eat?

Raccoons are nocturnal and omnivorous, meaning they eat anything from grubs to crayfish, as well as all the plants and vegetables that you have in your garden. Especially in the fall, they develop a taste for fruits like apples, peaches, and pears, but they also enjoy a variety of vegetables, like sweet corn, potatoes, and peas.

Even though wild raccoons prefer areas with trees and a source of water, more and more of them are raiding gardens because gardens are an easy source of food. They’ll be even happier if you have a source of water and some forest near your garden.

Identification

How to Identify Raccoons

Raccoons are small mammals 2 to 3 feet in length and weighing about 10 to 30 pounds. Raccoons have distinct black “masks” on their faces, which often characterizes them as bandits. They have fluffy, ringed tails, and their bodies are varying shades of gray, with hints of light brown. The forepaws of raccoons resemble tiny human hands with five toes, which makes raccoons very dexterous.

Raccoons are nocturnal creatures, meaning that they feed at night. This might make it hard for you to identify them, as you might only see the damage they cause. Looking for raccoon tracks near the damage might also help you to identify them. Learn more about identifying animal tracks.

raccoon tracks in mud
After a rainy night, five-toed tracks might appear in the mud around your garden. These raccoon tracks are easily distinguished from most other four-toed mammals.
Photo Credit: M. Sorrentino, University of Vermont. 

Raccoon Damage

If your lawn has a lot of holes in it, or your mulch pile has a lot of holes, you probably have a nightly visitor. Raccoons will dig up lawns and mulch piles looking for insects to eat. They will also empty bird feeders, so keep an eye on your feeders to see if you have a raccoon problem. Additionally, raccoons are known to raid chicken coops, stealing eggs and even killing chickens.

Of course, if you have corn, there’s nothing more infuriating than finding stalks toppled and ears ripped open and half-eaten. (Even more frustrating is the idea, offered by animal researchers, that raccoons are wasteful because they don’t really like sweet corn all that much; in fact, they seem to prefer sunflower seeds, dog food, and sardines.)

Control and Prevention

How to Get Rid of Raccoons

The persistence and proliferation of raccoons have inspired many solutions; one of them is bound to work for you. Here are tips from all our readers and staff! See what works for you.

  • If your raccoon problem is persistent, you can set live raccoon traps in your garden and release the animal at least 3 miles away (check local and state laws first). Raccoons will eat virtually anything; try fish-flavored dry cat food, chicken necks, ears of corn, or whole peanuts for bait.
  • To keep raccoons at a distance, try scattering blood meal around corn plants. Also, try sprinkling wood ashes around your plants.
  • Grind up garlic, mix it with an equal portion of chili powder, and spread it around the garden. Frequent applications are needed.
  • One reader says, “Hang shoes and clothes that smell of human perspiration around your garden or corn patch.” Similarly, “You can try to repel raccoons by putting dog hair or human hair around the garden.”
  • Tune a radio to a rock station and set it in the middle of your garden and/or corn patch. Leave it on all night. The noise will scare away the raccoons.
  • Put lights in the garden. A bright lantern will sometimes keep Sun-shy raccoons away.
  • Plant enough corn for man and beast alike.
  • Add some pinwheels and streamers to your garden to scare the creatures.
  • Folk wisdom suggests that you spread newspapers around the perimeter of the garden.

raccoon climbing a fence

How to Prevent Raccoons

  • Build a good fence around your garden. Beware though, raccoons are agile and intelligent; make sure your fence will keep them out. You may need to install an electric fence. This is a good measure. A two-wire fence, with one wire 4 to 6 inches above the ground and the other at 12 inches, should be effective.
  • If your home is near your garden, remove any possible food sources from the area, including pet food and bird seed. Buy garbage cans with locking lids and keep garbage inside if possible. Keep pet doors sealed shut between dusk and dawn. Cap your chimneys. Seal any holes or gaps in attics and roofs.
  • Grow tall varieties of corn such as ‘Silver Queen’, ‘Kandy Korn’, and ‘Lancelot’. Taller plants bear their ears higher, causing raccoons trouble getting leverage to topple stalks and ravage them. They prefer shorter plants.
  • You can also plant squash around your corn or other plants to deter raccoons; they don’t like walking on the prickly squash vines.

Do you have any more tips for getting rid of a raccoon? Let us know below!

Garden Pests

About The Author

Catherine Boeckmann

Catherine Boeckmann

Executive Digital Editor and Master Gardener

Catherine Boeckmann loves nature, stargazing, and gardening so it’s not surprising that she and The Old Farmer’s Almanac found each other. She leads digital content for the Almanac website, and is also a certified master gardener in the state of Indiana.

Read more from Catherine Boeckmann

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Comments

<span>Elizabeth 'Flint</span> Thu, 06/29/2017 - 08:52
I have a yard pole with 3 birdfeeders, 1 sugar water for hummers, 1 suet for woodpeckers, 1 sunflower for others. EVERY night, a raccoon comes and cleans out my feeders. One day, he actually came into my house (thru the doggy door, I think). County Animal Control removed him from my house, but let him go in the yard. Any ideas on how to get rid of him?
<span>Jan</span> Sat, 08/19/2017 - 20:11
As per my comment above, if you will install a raccoon baffle around your bird feeding pole, that will keep them off. You have to put it up high enough so they can't climb up the pole over the top of the baffle. Wild Birds Unlimited is a good source for purchasing a raccoon baffle. For those with squirrel problems, squirrel baffles are also effective. They must be installed properly, however. Be sure to follow the instructions to the letter.
<span>Elizabeth Conboy</span> Tue, 06/12/2018 - 20:15
Try to put marine grease on pole about three (3) feet off the ground and upwards. When the squirrels and raccoons get their feet slippery, their attempts to reach the feeders are futile. Marine grease isn't washed away by rain. It can be bought at WalMart and most auto parts stores. Works here. Good luck!
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Thu, 06/29/2017 - 14:26

Hi Elizabeth,

Raccoons are just looking for food, so the best way to stop them from coming around is to take away their food source. Also, bird feeders (not including hummingbird feeders) should be taken down around April to prevent wild animals from becoming domesticated to human food, particularly bears.

 <span>Barb</span> Wed, 06/13/2018 - 08:22
I live in the country and these raccoons are the worst, dirty, filthy animals ever. I feed the birds but I went to a hardware store and purchased the heavy pvc pipe, 8’, with a toilet flange. I mounted a square piece of 3/4 inch plywood to the toilet flange. I anchored the pipe into the ground and put the flange on top. I use heavy duty hooks and I am able to hang 4 bird feeders from it. BUT, I also have to grease the bottom of the pvc with petroleum jelly or something slippery because the raccoons can climb up the pipe. Do not put the pole near a fence or tree. You will have to grease the pole at least once a week. It works for me and they can’t get to my feeders. But they do like to dig up my freshly annual flowers I plant. I have to replant several times if I want flowers.
<span>Joyce S</span> Thu, 06/29/2017 - 20:49
my mother raccoon is a sugar junkie and empties the hummingbird feeder too... I have to bring them in as well as suet cages at night... she has even carried one of them off. if I forget to bring them in or wait too long, she hits the nectar first...
<span>Phoenix Pest M…</span> Fri, 03/24/2017 - 07:18
I live in a rural area and care for a colony of feral cats. I've read horror stories about raccoons killing cats, including some of the previous comments, so I'm always frightened that the same may happen to one of mine. I've had cats just disappear and wondered if it's due to a raccoon getting it. One that has come around is huge and has to weigh at least 30 pounds or more. Raccoons are very cute and I even had one as a pet growing up, but they scare the hell out of me now. My company gets calls frequently for raccoon removal because they've either gotten into the house, are destroying the garden, killing chickens, or being a nuisance in other ways. It's illegal in many areas for people to trap raccoons themselves and then release them somewhere else. I don't recommend shooting them unless you are a crack shot and won't leave them wounded.
<span>Jason</span> Sun, 07/31/2016 - 17:03
About the last suggestion to plant squash. The trouble we are having is raccoons (or maybe something else?) eating our squash. We are currently trying dog hair and blood meal along with a simple fence and netting. We need to wait a few more days for more squash flowers to grow before we know if this works at all. I suspect we will end up needing to apply the garlic/spice mix every couple of days until we decide on something more permanent.
<span>Rosetta Mccoy</span> Thu, 05/31/2018 - 22:56
I have 3 that comes around my house and even on top of my house,they are now digging up my rose bushes
<span>Carole Cackowski</span> Mon, 06/11/2018 - 11:26
GUN