The popular saying ‘if you feed them, they will come’ is especially true for raccoons. This should serve as an important warning for persons who love to feed wildlife. The problem though is that often we don’t know that we’re feeding raccoons. If you don’t even know you’re feeding them, chances are that you are going to need raccoon removal services for your Durham property. Let’s take some time to discuss how you can avoid unintentionally attracting the animals by offering feasts for them to enjoy.

 

What Attracts Raccoons To Your Durham Home?

 

You may not expect it to be so but raccoons relish what people throw away. This means that when a raccoon sees your trashcan, it sees an opportunity for a meal. Understandably in areas rife with raccoons, trashcan burglary is a common raccoon issue. You may feel confident that your bin is safe from raccoons because you don’t throw food leftovers in your bin, only to discover one early morning that the bin has been burgled by nature’s famous bandits. This is because the fact that they’re omnivorous makes it difficult to exclude items they may not want to feast on from disposal sites. They’ll eat plant parts as well as meat; in fact, very few things are excluded from their diet. Not even your pet’s food escapes the list.

Why Raccoons Shouldn’t be Encouraged to Visit Human Residences

 

If you deliberately feed raccoons you may be inviting danger. Experts advise against human-wildlife encounters because of the inherent dangers. One such danger is the transmission of diseases like rabies from wildlife to people. Your pet may also interact with the raccoon, contract the disease and transmit it to you. Once you develop the habit of feeding raccoons they will keep coming back to your location. In fact, they may even establish dens near or on your property to be close to the food source you’ve created for them. Imagine the problems you’ll have if you end up with an entire community of raccoons living on your property. Raccoons can cost you thousands of dollars in repair after they have damaged your property.

You can’t predict wildlife behaviour and so for your own safety as well as that of the animals, it is best that you avoid interactions. Rabid raccoons, for example, may become aggressive and scratch or bite. These scratches or bites make rabies transition even easier. It is very important to keep wildlife animals like raccoons at bay.

Keeping Raccoons Away From Your Property

 

You can try to thwart raccoons’ attempts to feast on what you discard by changing your garbage disposal habits. This means using sturdy bins that cannot be breached by the animals or even storing garbage inside (such in the garage) until collection day.

You can also deny them feasting opportunities in your space by being more careful with the storage of pet food. Lock pet food away inside and don’t leave your pet’s leftovers lying around. In fact, try to feed your pet inside.

How the Experts can Help With Your Raccoon problems

 

Even with all these precautions, raccoons may still find their way onto your property. If you find yourself in this situation, your best option is to call in the help of wildlife technicians. You can find Durham’s best wildlife technicians at Skedaddle.

Skedaddles’ wildlife control services are very thorough, humane and effective. A Skedaddle technician always starts with a thorough assessment followed by the application of strategic wildlife control and removal methodologies, designed to leave you with a wildlife free space. Don’t hesitate to call Skedaddle when you need raccoon removal services for your Durham property.