How to Keep The Racoons In Durham At Bay

Raccoons are one of the cutest, cuddliest-looking pests you might run across in your Durham home or business. With their fluffy fur and their adorable black masks, and the little hands they use to wash their food, you might be fooled into thinking these cuties would make good pets. Of course, this is a bad idea.

Raccoons are wild animals that carry deadly diseases, can be quite hostile, and don’t mind sharing their space with humans at all. Some raccoons are so brazen they might not even have the courtesy to pretend to be afraid of you. No matter how cute they are, you’ll want to keep these aggressive critters away from your home. That means wildlife control should always be a part of your pest control plan.

Dangers Of Raccoons

Raccoons pose a considerable threat to your health in terms of the parasites and diseases they carry. Raccoons can bring secondary infestations into your home and expose you to dangerous diseases.

As wild mammals, raccoons carry fleas, ticks, body mites, and more. When they infest your home, they can pass all these fleas, ticks, and body mites to your pets. They may also introduce parasite infestations onto your property or into your home. This is especially problematic for ticks, as ticks spread deadly diseases like Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

Raccoons can also directly expose you or your pets to rabies. Rabies is the most dangerous illness raccoons can spread, as they’re the second most common rabies vector behind only bats. Rabies is a deadly virus spread through the bite of an infected animal. This virus causes swelling in the brain and is one of the world’s deadliest diseases. Once you start showing symptoms of rabies, you have a zero percent chance of survival.

Fortunately, rabies can be prevented through vaccination – as long as you get a rabies shot immediately after being bitten by an infected animal, you’re unlikely ever to get rabies.  Unfortunately, rabies vaccines are not cheap. Uninsured vaccinations can cost thousands, and sometimes medical insurance refuses to cover rabies inoculations. That means a bite from a raccoon could put you on the hook for thousands of dollars worth of precautionary inoculations.

Wildlife Control For Raccoons

Since raccoons can climb fences and squeeze through tight spaces, keeping these wild animals off your property through physical barriers isn’t an option. That means your only viable choice is to make your home less attractive to these outdoor pests. Fortunately, you can slightly tweak a lot of the same pest control measures you already have in place to deal with rodents to make your home less attractive to raccoons as well.

For instance, if you’re already covering all your outdoor trash to keep rats away, all you need to do is use a clasp or strap to seal the lid so raccoons can’t open it. Other measures you can take include:

• Remove water sources like kiddie pools and birdbaths.
• Close access points like holes in attics or crawlspaces that raccoons might use for nesting in your home. 
• Keep sheds and garages closed. 
• Never leave pet foods sitting outside unattended, especially overnight. 
• If you can, keep veggie gardens inside greenhouses or other anti-wildlife barriers.
• Trim tree branches around fencing or close to the roofline to make climbing onto your property harder for raccoons. 

When To Call Wildlife Removal Services

If you’re taking the appropriate measures to deter raccoons and they’re still coming around, you may need wildlife removal services. Here at Eco Man Pest Solutions, we offer various services to remove and exclude wildlife from your home, including raccoons. If you’re ready for a safe, effective solution to your raccoon problem, give us a call or visit our contact page today!