Raccoons are very curious in nature, and if they
cannot crawl under or jump over the fence, the
look for the nearest tree or free standing
material close to the fence or house. Raccoons
may jump over bird feeder poles, and when they
eventually enter your property, they can crawl
through dog or cat doors. Raccoons have been
found to jump unto houses by first climbing
through trees and then jumping on the fence or
if the tree is close to the roof of the home,
they can jump directly unto such roof. Unlike
smaller animals such as rats and mice, raccoons
don’t stay too long on house rooftops or
chimneys, they look for their prey , pet food or
any other item that catches their interest, from
on top of the roof and then they can jump on
nearby objects where they can easily jump unto
the ground.
Raccoons can also climb trees easily to gain
access to your soffits , thus you need to make
sure when you install electric fences, the wires
are very close together enough to prevent the
animals from getting through. When raccoons
eventually gain entrance into your property,
they may cause a considerable damage by raiding
poultry houses, garden crops or plants, digging
up your yard and then exposing your pets and
family to some transmittable diseases. Parasites
such as fleas, ticks, roundworms, tapeworms and
even vectors of rabies are found on Raccoons,
these parasites may transfer diseases from them
to your pets easily.
Trapping has remained the most effective method
of preventing raccoons from entering into your
property when they jumped over the fence or
through the trees. Cage traps are often
advisable in urban regions and such traps can be
purchased from hardware stores. An ideal cage
trap for raccoon should measure at least 10 x 12
x 36 inches in width, length and height
respectively. You can include a bait such as pea
butter, fruit or un-cracked egg as a bait in
your trap and make sure your pets or family
don’t move close to the trap. Try as much as
possible to attach a bright shining object such
as aluminum foil to attract the animal and it is
ideal not to use a meat-bait to ensure that your
cat or dog does not move close to it. Make sure
all trees close to your fence or home are cut
frequently to avoid raccoons using their
branches to gain access to your property.
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