Category: raccoons

Raccoons are mischievous critters that can make a mess of your property and cause damage that is expensive to repair. Some also carry dangerous diseases that they can transmit to you, your loved ones, or your pets.

Therefore, it’s understandable if you are eager to find out what will deter a raccoon or what will make a raccoon go away.

Why Raccoons Hang Around Your Property

Before figuring out how to deter raccoons, it is important to understand why raccoons are attracted to your property in the first place. Like most creatures, raccoons venture onto residential properties to get easy access to food, water, and shelter.

What Will Deter a Raccoon?

Here are a few tips to help you deter raccoons from your Pittsburgh, PA property.

• Removing Their Food Sources

Raccoons are most likely on your property in search of food. Therefore, a great way to deter a raccoon is to remove or prevent access to accessible food sources. For example, raccoons are regularly found rifling through unsecured trash cans and dumpsters. Therefore, secure your garbage in durable bags placed inside tightly sealed cans with lockable lids that raccoons can’t open. Also, move any pet food bowls off of your porch and inside your home to avoid attracting hungry raccoons.

• Planting Cucumbers

Raccoons hate the smell of cucumber, so if raccoons are terrorizing your home garden, plant a few cucumbers to keep them far away.

• Making Them Weary of Predators

Another great way to deter raccoons is to make them believe that one of their predators is nearby. You can do this by purchasing predator urine from an outdoor store and applying it in your yard. An added benefit of this method is that it will likely keep other pests away, as well.

While the above tips can help to temporarily deter a raccoon, the best way to find out what will make a raccoon go away and stay away is to contact a raccoon removal professional.

What Will Make a Raccoon Go Away? Critter Control® of Pittsburgh

One of the most effective ways to get rid of raccoons in the Greater Pittsburgh area is to call the raccoon removal experts at Critter Control® of Pittsburgh.

At Critter Control® of Pittsburgh, our team of wildlife removal technicians are experienced and equipped to thoroughly inspect your property for raccoon activity, access points, and damage. Once identified, we will take fast and effective steps to remove nuisance raccoons and prevent them from returning. For more information on our raccoon removal services or to schedule an inspection and receive a free estimate, call Critter Control® of Pittsburgh today at 412-767-4067.

Raccoons are mischievous and dexterous animals capable of destroying your Greater Pittsburgh area yard and home. They regularly invade properties looking for food, water, and shelter. Small entry points, like pet doors, screened doors, attic vents, or cracked open windows or garages, are enough for them to break in and trash your home. To keep raccoon damage on your property to a minimum, here are some handy raccoon removal tips to help get rid of the nuisance pests.

4 Ways to Get Rid of Raccoons

Here are four DIY tricks you can use to deter nuisance raccoons from your home:

1. Secure your trash – Keep all trash sealed tightly inside your garbage bin. Keeping your garbage bin closed with a secured lid is essential in preventing raccoons from breaking into your trash and littering your lawn with waste. Use a heavy metal lid or something more secure than plastic, as raccoons can bypass it.
2. Remove any water sources – Raccoons go near homes to search for easily accessible water. Remove or bring in any bird baths or pet dishes, and tighten up any leaky hoses to discourage raccoon activity.
3. Seal entry points – Repair and cover all holes around your home and fence to keep raccoons out. Make sure to take care of exposures on your roof, as raccoons are great climbers.
4. Use repellants – Epsom salts, vinegar, and spicy peppers are great natural raccoon repellants you can use around your home that will deter the pests from your property.

The Dangers of a Raccoon Infestation

Although these tactics may work, they are only a temporary solution to a bigger problem. Raccoons are tenacious creatures that can carry diseases that are harmful to you and your family, such as rabies, parvovirus, and roundworm. They can also destroy your yard and chew through small opening to access your residence. If you have nuisance raccoons breaking into your home, destroying your garden, or knocking over your garbage bins, then avoid ineffective DIY raccoon removal tricks and contact Critter Control® of Pittsburgh for safe and efficient raccoon removal services.

Effective Raccoon Removal Methods

The most efficient way to get rid of raccoons and protect your Pittsburgh property is by hiring experienced raccoon removal specialists at Critter Control® of Pittsburgh to handle your pest issues. Our raccoon removal experts use a safe and humane CritterSafe® method to remove unwanted critters from Greater Pittsburgh properties. Our method consists of four steps:

1. Inspection – A raccoon removal technician will thoroughly inspect your home to locate the nuisance critters, assess their damage, and determine the scale of the infestation.
2. Removal – We will devise a strategy to remove all nuisance raccoons from your property using safe, non-toxic, and humane methods.
3. Prevention – Once all raccoons are gone, we will seal all entry points on your property to prevent future pests from getting inside.
4. Restoration – Our last step is to clean and repair any damage caused by the invasive raccoons.

To schedule your inspection and receive a free estimate for our humane and efficient raccoon removal services, call Critter Control® of Pittsburgh today at 412-767-4067.

By nature, raccoons are very intelligent and curious creatures. There is no challenge too great for these mischievous little critters, and no entry too small for them to enter. To put it simply, raccoons will do anything to access your trash and your home in their search for food.

To protect the sanctity of your property and avoid their messy damage and contamination, here are some ways to keep raccoons out of your trash.

4 Ways to Keep Raccoons Out of Your Trash

There are several ways to keep raccoons away and out of your garbage cans. Tips to help make sure your home remains safe and raccoon-free include:

1. Taking your trash out in the morning. Raccoons happen to be nocturnal, and so are more likely to be attracted to your garbage if you leave it out overnight.
2. Placing your trash strategically. Placing your cans on level ground will reduce the likeliness of it being tipped over. It also helps to place your cans close to a spotlight or a motion detecting light, as it startles the critters whenever they get close.
3. Using animal repellents. Repellants use both unpleasant scents and tastes to discourage raccoons from approaching your trash.
4. Cleaning your trash cans regularly. Using a little ammonia to remove lingering odors and trash residue can repel raccoons from your garbage cans.

Dangers Caused by Raccoon Invasions

Dexterous animals, raccoons can access your trash cans if they are not sealed and secure. Eventually, they will chew and scratch through any opening they find to get to the food, be it in your trash receptacle or in your kitchen. Apertures along the roof, vent ducts and pet doors are some of their most frequent modes of entry into homes. There are several methods you can attempt to get rid of a raccoon in the attic.

Like most critters, raccoons rarely mean any harm and are simply in search of shelter and nourishment; however, they can cause serious damage to your property and spread disease and contamination that could threaten the integrity of your home and health, respectively. To avoid contracting ticks, fleas, and diseases such as rabies, contact local raccoon removal professionals to keep raccoons out of your trash.

The Best Way to Keep Raccoons Out of Trash

The first step in protecting your home from a potential raccoon invasion is to call the wildlife removal professionals at Critter Control® of Pittsburgh. Our team of experts have been in the business of removing critters from homes and businesses for decades and have come up with a proven CritterSafe® method to remove raccoons from homes and businesses. This method includes:

1. Inspection – Our technicians walk through your home to assess the size of your infestation.
2. Relocation – All nuisance raccoons are safely removed from your home.
3. Restoration – Any damage caused by the infestation is cleaned, repaired, and restored.
4. Prevention – Protections are put in place to prevent future raccoon invasions.

If raccoons are disturbing your trash and causing you problems, then contact the experts at Critter Control® of Pittsburgh to schedule your inspection and receive a free estimate for our humane and efficient raccoon removal services. Call us today at 412-767-4067.

If your trash cans are regularly getting knocked over and you’ve been hearing thumping and scratching noises coming from above your ceiling at night, then you likely have raccoons living in your attic. In their search for food and shelter, displaced raccoons will often pursue warm, dry places to establish a nest— especially when a female raccoon is getting ready to give birth. Easy to get into and close to food sources, your residential attic is the perfect place for them to nest and infest.

To prevent your raccoon problem—and the damages they can cause—from growing out of control, there are several methods you can attempt to get rid of a raccoon in the attic.

4 Ways to Get Rid of Raccoons in the Attic

Here are a few methods to rid your attic of raccoons

1. Use Light – Raccoons are nocturnal and prefer dark spaces, so try placing a bright light in your attic to dissuade them from entering. However, make sure the light you plan to use is fire safe.
   
2. Use Sound – Raccoons are threatened by the sound of human voices, so if you place a radio (specifically tuned to a talk radio station) in your attic, they may be less inclined to linger.
   
3. Use Smell – While this is the least effective method, you can try keeping raccoons away using repelling smells. To keep raccoons at bay, try poking holes in a plastic bag with ammonia or apple cider vinegar-soaked cloths inside and hang it by the raccoons’ entrance to your attic.
   
4. Contact a Professional – If you’ve tried all of the above tactics and you still have unwanted raccoons in your attic, call the wildlife professionals at Critter Control® of Pittsburgh to solve your raccoon problem permanently, safely, and discreetly.

It is important to remember that raccoons can carry diseases like parvovirus, rabies, roundworm, and more, which can pose a threat to you and your family. Protect your home, yard, and property and avoid the messy damage of having them in your attic or raccoons out in your trash. You should never try to remove a raccoon on your own. Instead, rely on Critter Control® of Pittsburgh for all your raccoon removal needs.

Pittsburgh’s Raccoon Removal Experts

If you’ve noticed signs of raccoons living in your attic, don’t delay, contact the professionals at Critter Control® of Pittsburgh for safe and humane removal of the unwanted pests. To schedule an inspection and receive your free raccoon removal estimate, call Critter Control® of Pittsburgh today at 412-767-4067.