It is a common characteristic among wild animals to be destructive, which includes raccoons as well. Raccoons believe that wherever they go, it belongs to them. They make their habitat differently according to their will. They are not aware of the damage that they cause. Additionally, raccoons like to rip up insulation to make a warm nest.Another important issue to mention is that if you want to measure the damage and destructiveness of raccoons, you need to understand some other factors, such as the danger of raccoons to humans and pets, the reason that raccoons attack properties, preventing raccoon damage, and finally, what kinds of damage raccoons can do. In this article, you will find reliable information to measure the raccoons’ destructiveness and related factors that will assist you in performing better in the process.
Are raccoons dangerous to humans and pets?
Raccoons are extremely unsafe mammals. They carry viruses that are deadly to humans and other animals. They transmit various diseases, destroy your property, and even attack you. As well, raccoons are dangerous to humans and other animals in terms of protecting their young. Even if a raccoon pretends to be kind and friendly, it is not a good idea to approach a wild animal because they are wild animals. Although some people might consider keeping a raccoon as a pet we don t recommend that. Understandably, raccoons are rabies vector species. Both healthy and infected raccoons might be aggressive and hurtful, but a rabid raccoon surely would attack.
Apart from this, raccoons are more likely to intimidate before attacking. To illustrate their threat, they will make themselves appear larger, bearing their teeth, sticking their fur out, elevating their tails, and other behaviors like screaming, barking, showing their claws, and hissing vocalization will reveal that they are going to attack you. In fact, raccoons are damaging in a variety of ways, and the following three damages are the most typical among them:
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Raccoons are Defensive fighters:
Raccoons will surely attack you if they feel threatened or realize a threat to their young. They will use their sharp claws to attack when threatened. Besides, mother raccoons become aggressive and dangerous during pregnancy; even a mother can attack an unsuspecting dog. They can kill small dogs and cats, which is a known trait of them.
Raccoons are Disease carriers:
Raccoons carry deadly diseases to humans and other animals. The most widespread diseases are rabies, canine distemper, and feline distemper among raccoons. If humans and other animals are infected, they are more likely to end up dead. Even some of them are incurable. Obey safety principles if you want to help a sick, injured, or infected raccoon.
- Related: How to help an injured raccoon?
Raccoons can cause Property Damage:
Being able to chew various materials, like plastic, wood, and other things, gives the raccoons the ability to be more destructive than you think. Raccoons like to eat fruits and vegetables from yards. If you have a yard, then they are lucky enough to enjoy it. Usually, they do not dig for grubs, but they gather laid sod to find grubs. Additionally, chimneys, attics, basements, and under porches are locations they choose as their nests and would make their dens.
Why are raccoons so destructive?
Raccoons are curious and powerful wild animals with sharp teeth, paws, and heavy bodies. The weight of a normal raccoon can be 10 and 20 pounds and usually male raccoons are larger than female raccoons. Due to their curious nature, they always want to explore. They have their kingdom with rules. Raccoons in the cities are often the cause of major destruction.
Moreover, they enjoy chewing wood, wire, and plastic, which makes them non-stoppable in tearing walls. That’s why you should consult or get help from a proficient raccoon removal agency to push away raccoons from your property. Innately, raccoons are curious and want to test new things that they have never seen before, and it causes them to rip whatever comes their way. For instance, wires, wood, and things out of the wall.
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Not only this, raccoons do not care about your house’s safety and would eagerly fill your walls with poop that would endanger your family’s life and make you want to get rid of them. In this case, if you want to remove raccoon poop, try not to act alone because it will cause various health issues. Again, it would be beneficial to get rid of raccoon poop with a professional raccoon removal team. Your house can be torn open by raccoons and your roof can be used to build a cozy nest inside your attic.
- Related: Do raccoons eat ice cream?
Raccoons are most destructive For:
Furthermore, raccoons are destructive in farms and villages too. You might be frustrated by the raccoons visiting your yard frequently and destroying your veggies. Whereas, farmer get nightmares about raccoons entering their farm. Sharp teeth of the raccoons can cut and destroy hard objects such as wood, wires, and other small mammals so just think how would they act upon soft vegetables and fruits. They might destroy your food storage, and make you messy. Moreover raccoons like to dig into garbage bags and bins to find leftovers.
Why do raccoons break into houses?
Raccoons are well known as smart, unpredictable, and adorable animals, even in movies and cartoons. It is extremely menacing that raccoons show up many times around your property. Eventually, the last thing that you can predict is that they will become your new houseguests. Sometimes it is appropriate to solve a problem to prevent attraction. It is important to know what attracts raccoons in the first place, and you need to find solutions to make it less desirable for animals. Comprehending what causes animals, especially raccoons, to be attracted to your property is not a big deal. Therefore, you should notice some issues to prevent raccoons from attacking your habitat, such as raccoons’ needs and their desire to eat.
- Also searched for: How to identify the sex of raccoons?
What do raccoons need?
Raccoons are the same as humans and animals, they require three basic things to survive, shelter, water, and food. Raccoons are great climbers and will easily find chimneys, and open crawlspaces, and find their way into attics, which your house might provide for all their needs. When it comes to water, they drink it from decorative fountains and ponds, puddles, leaky pipes, and pet water dishes. More importantly, read on to learn what raccoons eat. If you have any of those three options around your house, yard or garage raccoons will come and make a nest there.
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What do raccoons eat?
Raccoons in the jungle hunt and forge their food. They like to live close to water sources to be able to use crayfish, frogs, fish, snails, and clams as their meals. They are also absolutely interested in ingesting eggs, insects, nuts, fruits, vegetables, and even the occasional dead animal. Besides, raccoons are not choosy animals, and whenever they find a new source of food, right away it becomes their favorite dish, which can be fallen nuts in your yards, garbage cans, or even dog food that you left out at night. If you put any leftovers near your main gate or house surely raccoons will approach you.
How to Keep Raccoons Away from Your House
It is obvious that raccoons are adorable and lovely animals, which may attract you to pet them, but it is a completely dangerous idea. They are aggressive and carry pathogens that spread diseases like rabies. Due to that, you need to protect yourself from being infected or possibly attacked by them. In addition, if they break into your property, they will destroy your yard, and your house walls, and even infect you with incurable desire. After all, there are many procedures to push raccoons away from your property and never see a raccoon again around your house.
The first way is you call the nearest wild protection control agency; if not, you should act before they can damage your habitat and make a safe and sound dwelling den for themselves. Last but not least, some states have rules for protecting wildlife. Make sure to follow these principles to not create a problem for yourself.
How to Keep Raccoons Away from Your House
Use light and sound:
Raccoons enter your yard to have a safe, warm, and quiet spot to make their nest. Make your yard opposite to their expectations, which would discourage them. As well as use bright lights, music, and food traffic. Be aware that this method may not work surely but it can help distract their attention from your garden.
Remove the vegetables:
Most raccoons forage for food, and your garden would make their job easier. Try not to plant anything and probably the plants raccoons love. If you want to plant, be sure that it is completely protected. Possibly plant cucumbers around your garden because raccoons hate their smell. What is more, do not leave any branches that help them climb into the chimney.
Garlic or onion spray:
Garlic and onion have a pungent smell, and raccoons hate them. Prepare garlic or onion spray and spray the locations that the raccoons visited. Surely, they will not return. Though it is a good way, you may have to bear the perfume for a while.
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Some other options to keep raccoons away from your home:
There are also many other possible ways that you can find online to get rid of interrupting raccoons; read on and choose the way that works best for you.
- Keep your yard free of fallen fruit or nuts.
- Set up motion-activated sprinklers around vegetable gardens.
- Keep the trash can lids secured with bungee cords.
- Don’t leave pet food or water down when you’re not home, if possible.
- If you store grains, birdseed, or pet food in a shed or garage, ensure the lids are tightly sealed and that there are no access points for raccoons.
- Inspect the perimeter of your house to make sure there are no places where raccoons can crawl into attics, crawlspaces, underneath porches, and so forth.
- Keep woodpiles stacked in sealed sheds or far away from your home, as raccoons may use them as dens.
What damages do raccoons do?
Raccoons are wild animals. Some people select them as pets despite their wild behavior and aggressiveness. They can be dangerous to humans and other animals due to their specific characteristics that carry viruses. Also, they are extremely damaging to properties if they break in. If a raccoon lives in a house, they create various destructions, beginning with chewing wires, wood, and plastics to make nests for themselves. Usually, raccoons can climb, pass through holes, and enter your house. The bad news is that once they like your house, it becomes almost impossible to push the raccoons away from your property
If you act individually with the raccoons, they change into aggressive mammals and might attack you when they feel threatened by whoever approaches them. Another important issue is that if you touch them, they carry a variety of viruses that cause incurable diseases in humans and other species. Finally, it is common that they are interested in safe, warm, and comfortable places such as chimneys, attics, and roofs to build their own houses, and it can be realized that raccoons are damaging to both the health and property of humans.
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Can raccoons break windows?
Raccoons are known to break the windows as well. Windows gives them the feeling of being, trapped, afraid, disturbed, and when they are facing with lack of food and other necessities. Although it is not common for the raccoons to break the windows on their own, it is more related to the materials that the window is made. Raccoons have strong forelimbs and keen nails, by which they are capable of damaging the window.
Why are raccoons so destructive? Keep Raccoons Away?
In some cases, it has been declared that if they are panicky, stressed, or agitated they may break glass and windows. The one other reason is access attempts, for some reason they might attempt to damage the window if they are inside a room in which they are attracted by something outdoors. Perhaps, they have seen their favorite food or a kozy sheltered space. As anyone else tries for their approachable desire they will also make attempts to get out and reach their desirable target.
Next, they might be attracted by sources close to them outside, to illustrate, they have seen bird feeders or any other pet food that might be there outside. As a result of their attempts for the food, they might break the window during this procedure. The last reason found is that during their copulation season or for the maintenance of their kingdom they must get ever more aggressive to guard them against some security issues. So, they might break the window with their sharp nails if necessary to maintain their area.
Frequently Asked Questions(FAQ)
Conclusion
To sum up, it is obvious to humans that raccoons are a type of wild animal, and you never know how they will behave at certain times, which makes them unpredictable among other wild species. Apart from this, raccoons are absolutely damaging and destructive to the environment and other living beings.
They used to break into properties and destroy houses, walls, and even yards. Also, they can be dangerous to humans and other animals’ health. They carry different viruses, and if you interact with them, you are more likely to be infected with some deadly illnesses. In conclusion, it would be beneficial to stay away from all kinds of wild animals, especially raccoons, and use the methods mentioned above to bar them from attacking your house and destroying your property. Also, be careful to find out about the local community principles about wild animal removal, and then act based on them.
