Many of you know that raccoons are known to adapt very easily to a changing environment that is why many people have problems with the damages caused by these creatures. Raccoons have inherited a bad habit: they vandalize garbage cans, fish ponds and also your very own kitchen pantry due to the fact that many houses ( especially in United States ) have a pet door which for a raccoons is like an invitation. Besides this, raccoons invade attics, chimneys, porches and other similar locations, not to mention that the cities and suburbs offer these creatures a developed underground roadway system for those intelligent animals who use these storm sewers. These raccoons not only invade your privacy but also they cause damage, for example, they can get into crops or just by simply occupying your chimney they make annoying little sounds that eventually will drive you crazy. The first thing you should do is to find out if you are truly having problems with raccoons because many people have the tendency to affirm that raccoons are the one’s to blame for the damages but in reality, the one’s who should be blamed for causing these problems are dogs, cats or other “friendly” animals. If you don’t have the possibility to observe these animals directly the best thing you could do is to identify their tracks. In order to do this you should use the following : flour, nontoxic powders and also cornstarch, these will help you to check out footprints on hard surfaces. A useful tip : raccoons which use chimneys or attics usually begin to make noise when it is getting darker and they stop doing this in the morning, when the sun makes its appearance. The sounds that raccoons make when they are moving can help you detect them more easily. Also, if you hear purring noises then you should know that young cubs are present. Usually, you will hear these noises when their mother comes back to the den. A wise thing you could do if you have problems with raccoons is simply wait; in other words, many of the problems made by raccoons ( for example: occupation of a building ) resolve themselves within a few weeks or if you are lucky, in a few days. If cubs are also causing you problems then you should know that they won’t leave your attic until they are nine weeks of age because until then, they can’t take care of themselves so they won’t venture in an unknown environment where they will be helpless. When it comes down to chimneys and attics if yours is uncapped then raccoons will probably use it for denning but also for giving birth and raising cubs. If you assume that after a while they will leave, the best thing you should is that you might try using some harassment techniques so that you could “hurry” their departure. Also, you might as well leave the attic lights on or place a radio tuned to a talk-show and leave it a high volume. Once you are certain that you got rid of all the raccoons, the first thing you should do is install an approved chimney cap so that in the future, raccoons won’t be able to invade your privacy. A very important note is that you shouldn’t use fire or smoke to make the animals come out of the chimneys because by doing so, you will most likely kill the youngsters as they aren’t able to evade on their own. When it comes down to yards and gardens, in order to discourage garbage vandalizing you should place cans at the curb when the day of garbage pick-up has arrived. Another thing you could do is that you should secure the lids using bungee cords or weights. Don’t forget that raccoons are often attracted by birdseed and suet and they usually cause a lot of damage to garden fruits and also vegetable gardens , especially corn and grapes. Garden vandalizing will often occur when the foods are ready to be picked so you should be more attentive during those periods. All in all, raccoons can cause a lot of problems so some safety precautions should be taken in order to avoid these problems which can become very annoying if ignored for a longer period of time. Summary: Getting rid of raccoons can become a very frustrating thing to do if you don’t take the best decisions. Patience and clever thinking are a “must” when confronting with such a delicate situation.
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