What attracts raccoons?

Raccoons, curious creatures with a high level of intellect, are some of the most dreaded visitors on any home or property. While they are a big nuisance to majority of the home and property owners, keeping them at bay requires calculated moves rather than knee-jump reactions. They can cause a big mess by chewing through electrical wires, leaving behind droppings, knocking over feeders and rubbish bins as well as being carriers of parasitic diseases. While these creatures will routinely visit homes and property or even set up their shelters in them, their movements are not random but calculated. They do not operate like free spirits following the wind but instead make strategic decisions based on several factors. Here is a list of the factors that make homes and property attractive to raccoon visitations or even setting up their dwelling places in them.



Availability of food and access to it is one of the principal factors that make a home or property attractive to raccoons. Being omnivores, raccoons feed on a wide range of diet. They will love to visit your home often if they find their favorite delicacy stacked up at places they can easily reach and make merry without much stress. Fallen fruits, easily accessible feeders, meat-laden rubbish bins are things just increase the frequency of raccoon visitations as well as the possibility of them establishing a permanent base.

Learn more: Do raccoons live in trees or sleep in trees?

Shelter is another key issue that will either make your home attractive or inhabitable by raccoons. Woodland environments are their natural and preferable shelters. Even then you should make no mistake; these creatures are an adaptable breed capable of putting up almost anywhere whenever they can customize available facilities to suit their needs. From chimneys to attics, raccoons love environments that mimic their natural environments. They will not take any chances taking up abandoned rodent habitats whenever they find them, so ensure you r home is free from these.

Once they have eaten to their feel, raccoons will love to quench their thirst hence free and accessible sources of water are necessary. Empty bottles of water that collect and store water, uneven surfaces that make water stagnate or other places where raccoons need no rocket science to quench thirst set the perfect conditions for their inhabitation. Ensure you drain water that is stagnant, expose any other water-collecting surfaces to the sun’s drying effect and keep tanks closed to avoid access.

Finally, raccoons love the cover of darkness. If your home and property have no security lights then your friends will definitely have a field day operating during the night. Their eyes have no problem piercing through the dense blanket of darkness while their nose leads them to the party point. This could be the food-laden bin, the free-access kitchen or the bountiful garden with uncollected ripe fruits lying on the ground. Take caution! Read more: Raccoon Control, how to get rid of raccoons, Raccoon Feces, How to get raccoons out of the ceiling.