hi, i'm jim harmon with california pest managementhere in california and we're going to talk today about how to keep raccoons out of youryard and away from your house. well the first thing that you have to understand is why they'reover here anyway, they're looking for a place to make a house and or food. so with thosetwo items and you understand that, then let's first say let's get rid of the food. so welook over here, we got garbage sitting out
best way to keep snakes out of your yard, open without a top on it, that's just askingfor trouble, but even if we put a top on, this is a plastic can they can still get chewthrough and they'll get into it just like rats or any other animal. they want it, they'regoing to get it. sometimes going to a metal can is going to help, but eliminate the foodsource. that's number one. if we get rid of
that, they're less likely to hang out. nowmany homeowners have aquascapes, they're small ponds, koi ponds and such in their backyard.now it's great for the house, it improves the value and it's very serene and relaxing,but unfortunately koi in a koi pond to a raccoon is a sushi bar. so you'll be lucky to keepthem. that's a whole different topic we'll get to later. they like to wash their handsand wash their food so having a small little bit of water source is just a perfect wayto entice them to come in to your backyard. so we have our trash and then we have ourwater source, this is raccoon heaven. all we need now is a place to hang out. this isalso a smorgasbord salad bar for any raccoon that comes through the neighborhood. so youjust have to be aware and a lot of times you're
going to have to put chicken wire up aroundyour home garden and prevent the raccoons from getting into it. and sometimes even putit on the top. ok now one of the other reasons why raccoons are going to come into your yardis because they're looking for grubs. if you've gotten your trash taken care of then the raccoonscoming in looking for food. now this grass looks pretty nice but it's got a lot of wormsand grubs underneath the soil layer that they're going to be peeling this back and diggingin it just like a skunk or a possum would and then feeding on them. best way to havethat solved is to get rid of the food source. have a professional pest control company comein and take care of the grubs that are inside the soil. now one of the things in your housewhen you're looking around your yard, remember
raccoons we've already talked about food andwater, now they're going to be looking for a place to sleep and make their nest. nowone of the things we always see is they'll get up underneath crossed eaves here and ifthere's a little hole, they'll open that up. i've seen them take roof shingles apart gettinginto an attic space. typically those are the wood shake shingles. and the next part wouldbe one your house itself. if you look up on the roof of this house, you see some vents.well those need to be screened in and the holes in the vents got to be small enoughthat a raccoon will not be able to fit through there, you don't want them getting in yourattic because the feces is very dangerous and a cornered raccoon is even more dangerous.now having nice, nice storage boxes, this
is great, this is a plastic one. they canchew into the side you'll never know they're there and then now they got a nice, safe,secure condo. now for the last tidbit, if you do have raccoons in your yard alreadythere, trapping is the best way to get them out. they truly love any kind of fruit, anykind of trash, make sure you use the good
hard trap, industrial strength. you can purchaseit at a hardware store or honestly, it's much better just get a professional in and letthem do the work for you because you also have to relocate this animal very far awayand you have to make sure also that there's no babies in the attic or in the wall wherethat raccoon was living.
