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How to Identify and Get Rid of Raccoons in the Garden

Raccoons might be cute, but they’re no good for your garden: here are tips on how to remove them from your yard.

Keep Raccoons Away from Your Crops

Written By: Catherine Boeckmann Executive Digital Editor and Master Gardener
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Pest Type
Non-Insect Pests
Plants Affected
How to Grow Sweet Corn: Planting, Pollination & Harvesting Tips

Got raccoons raiding your garden like it’s their personal buffet? These masked troublemakers may be cute, but they’re clever, persistent, and incredibly destructive. If you’re trying to figure out how to get rid of raccoons, you’re not alone. From snacking on sweet corn to turning over trash cans, raccoons are notorious for causing backyard chaos. Here’s how to identify raccoons and get rid of them before they turn your garden into their playground.

What Are Raccoons?

Raccoons (Procyon lotor) have masks over their eyes because they could rob even a bank vault. These resourceful animals are second in persistence and imagination to no other animal (unless it’s a squirrel at a bird feeder).

Raccoons are great climbers, swimmers, jumpers, and runners. Their five-toed paws make them very dexterous, and their agility can allow them to outsmart every human concoction used to deter them. If they aren’t breaking into your garden, they might try to climb into your chimney to use it as a den.

Raccoons do not hibernate during the winter, but they will live in dens for periods of severe weather, causing them to lose a lot of their body fat in northern areas. They often live in hollow trees during the warm part of the year. Populations of raccoons often include many youngsters, and families will stay together for about a year.

What Do Raccoons Eat?

Raccoons are nocturnal and omnivorous, meaning they eat anything from grubs to crayfish, as well as all the plants and vegetables that you have in your garden. Especially in the fall, they develop a taste for fruits like apples, peaches, and pears, but they also enjoy a variety of vegetables, like sweet corn, potatoes, and peas.

Even though wild raccoons prefer areas with trees and a source of water, more and more of them are raiding gardens because gardens are an easy source of food. They’ll be even happier if you have a source of water and some forest near your garden.

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Identification

How to Identify Raccoons

Raccoons are small mammals 2 to 3 feet in length and weighing about 10 to 30 pounds. Raccoons have distinct black “masks” on their faces, which often characterizes them as bandits. They have fluffy, ringed tails, and their bodies are varying shades of gray, with hints of light brown. The forepaws of raccoons resemble tiny human hands with five toes, which makes raccoons very dexterous.

Raccoons are nocturnal creatures, meaning that they feed at night. This might make it hard for you to identify them, as you might only see the damage they cause. Looking for raccoon tracks near the damage might also help you to identify them. Learn more about identifying animal tracks.

raccoon tracks in mud
After a rainy night, five-toed tracks might appear in the mud around your garden. These raccoon tracks are easily distinguished from most other four-toed mammals.
Photo Credit: M. Sorrentino, University of Vermont. 

Raccoon Damage

If your lawn has a lot of holes in it, or your mulch pile has a lot of holes, you probably have a nightly visitor. Raccoons will dig up lawns and mulch piles looking for insects to eat. They will also empty bird feeders, so keep an eye on your feeders to see if you have a raccoon problem. Additionally, raccoons are known to raid chicken coops, stealing eggs and even killing chickens.

Of course, if you have corn, there’s nothing more infuriating than finding stalks toppled and ears ripped open and half-eaten. (Even more frustrating is the idea, offered by animal researchers, that raccoons are wasteful because they don’t really like sweet corn all that much; in fact, they seem to prefer sunflower seeds, dog food, and sardines.)

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Control and Prevention

How to Get Rid of Raccoons

The persistence and proliferation of raccoons have inspired many solutions; one of them is bound to work for you. Here are tips from all our readers and staff! See what works for you.

  • If your raccoon problem is persistent, you can set live raccoon traps in your garden and release the animal at least 3 miles away (check local and state laws first). Raccoons will eat virtually anything; try fish-flavored dry cat food, chicken necks, ears of corn, or whole peanuts for bait.
  • To keep raccoons at a distance, try scattering blood meal around corn plants. Also, try sprinkling wood ashes around your plants.
  • Grind up garlic, mix it with an equal portion of chili powder, and spread it around the garden. Frequent applications are needed.
  • One reader says, “Hang shoes and clothes that smell of human perspiration around your garden or corn patch.” Similarly, “You can try to repel raccoons by putting dog hair or human hair around the garden.”
  • Tune a radio to a rock station and set it in the middle of your garden and/or corn patch. Leave it on all night. The noise will scare away the raccoons.
  • Put lights in the garden. A bright lantern will sometimes keep Sun-shy raccoons away.
  • Plant enough corn for man and beast alike.
  • Add some pinwheels and streamers to your garden to scare the creatures.
  • Folk wisdom suggests that you spread newspapers around the perimeter of the garden.

raccoon climbing a fence

How to Prevent Raccoons

  • Build a good fence around your garden. Beware though, raccoons are agile and intelligent; make sure your fence will keep them out. You may need to install an electric fence. This is a good measure. A two-wire fence, with one wire 4 to 6 inches above the ground and the other at 12 inches, should be effective.
  • If your home is near your garden, remove any possible food sources from the area, including pet food and bird seed. Buy garbage cans with locking lids and keep garbage inside if possible. Keep pet doors sealed shut between dusk and dawn. Cap your chimneys. Seal any holes or gaps in attics and roofs.
  • Grow tall varieties of corn such as ‘Silver Queen’, ‘Kandy Korn’, and ‘Lancelot’. Taller plants bear their ears higher, causing raccoons trouble getting leverage to topple stalks and ravage them. They prefer shorter plants.
  • You can also plant squash around your corn or other plants to deter raccoons; they don’t like walking on the prickly squash vines.

Do you have any more tips for getting rid of a raccoon? Let us know below!

Garden Pests
About The Author
Catherine Boeckmann

Catherine Boeckmann

Executive Digital Editor and Master Gardener

Catherine Boeckmann is the Executive Digital Editor of Almanac.com, the website companion of The Old Farmer's Almanac. She covers gardening, plants, pest control, soil composition, seasonal and moon c...
Read More from Catherine Boeckmann

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Comments

<span>Green Gardener</span> Sat, 05/02/2015 - 16:46
AmandaCB: What article are you responding to? This one does NOT advise anyone to trap or, especially, feed raccoons. Get a grip.
<span>Tboneagain</span> Sun, 08/23/2015 - 16:02
On the contrary, the article is about protecting sweet corn from raccoons. The very act of growing sweet corn is potentially feeding the 'coons. In addition, one of the methods recommended in the article deal with 'coons was to plant enough for them too, in other words to feed them.
<span>No Name Get Th…</span> Sun, 06/01/2014 - 12:37
I have a racoon that comes into my yard/roof at night it loves to eat threw the garbage and eat all the baby quails and it gave my dog pravo that almost killed him, and finding pieces of baby birds is awesome. I could just picture him ripping them apart seeing as I find legs heads and other bird parts, I need that thing gone, it doesn't help that my mother makes her own fertilizer of left over fruits and veggies hmmm at least he is eating his vitamins mahahaha no srsly what can I doo?
<span>Johnny H</span> Fri, 07/10/2015 - 22:43
Trap n kill or shoot.
<span>Kathies</span> Thu, 05/29/2014 - 08:27
I've seen advertisements for garbage bags scented with mint for deterring raccoons. Any truth to that? I'm having trouble with my potted plants on my deck - the raccoons keep digging them up - and I'm wondering if planting some mint in my planters will be helpful.
<span>Virginia Phillabaum</span> Sat, 06/20/2015 - 14:18
what works to keep raccons out of my glower pots on deck?Moth balls? cayane pepper? Help!! They are destroying my plants.
<span>Anne1024</span> Sat, 06/14/2014 - 08:50
I have raccoon with a sense of humor...I have the yellow rubber ducks for the kids in the pool. Had pool noodles until they had a party with those. They take the ducks out of the pool and place them in front of my shed. They pull rocks and shells from my planters and put in pool. I've noticed that the two pots that had no drainage, they dug into and made a mess! I have since closed two holes under the fence, but they are still coming over. I don't want to hurt them as at this point, no real damage has been done and it's become a joke each morning when we open the blinds. I live in a residential area since 94 and this is the first season we are experiencing this issue. How can I get them to visit someone else's yard!? Thanks!
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Fri, 05/30/2014 - 13:46

Mint-X trash bags were developed to repel the Norway rat and raccoons. The active ingredients include wintergreen oil, corn mint oil, camphor oil, and eucalyptus oil. We're not sure if a raccoon would be repelled as effectively with just the fresh mint, but it is certainly worth a try! Good luck!

 <span>Debra</span> Thu, 05/11/2017 - 18:59
Sorry to say they don't work. I really have become to despise these creatures!
<span>Southern Wildl…</span> Tue, 04/22/2014 - 10:46
Hi Guys. I wanted to interject my 2 cents worth on this topic. I own a wildlife trapping & removal company in Georgia. (Not a plug more to establish expertise) I am all about home remedies for everything. I want you to consider this though if you are trying to ward off Raccoon. First & foremost there are beneficial critters and insects that the home remedies might be chasing off. You want to consider the innocent victims of the material you are using. Also, if you ever try to catch a raccoon in a big box store animal trap and fail. Fail because of the strength of the trap or fail because trap set wrong or fail because of bait used... you have just educated that raccoon and now not only prevented yourself from catching it but also might make it harder on a professional to remove. Be wary of good intentions causing you even more effort.