Raccoons and other small creatures like rats and mice can be a real trouble for house owners. They cause problems with removing food from the house, they mess through trash cans, they eat and scratch up walls, furniture and property, they cause much destruction and this is all even worse if they decide to nest up and reproduce in the house. On top of being destructive, they are also dangerous to the house and the family members living in the house because they carry with them many bacteria and viruses like rabies.
The dangers of having a raccoon infestation
Raccoons and other small animals don’t just come alone as mentioned before; they carry with them many dangerous pathogens like rabies. Especially for children living in the house, these pathogens can be really hazardous. They also carry other parasites like roundworms and cause illnesses like Leptospirosis which can be fatal especially for the very young and very old. This is because they have come into contact with the body excretions like urine and other fluids from many other animals in the natural habitat. They themselves are immune against most of these pathogens but we are not, since we don’t normally come into contact with them.
Raccoons also carry with them other small insects like mites and ticks which themselves carry all these pathogenic viruses and bacteria. Especially if your household has cats are dogs, beware of letting in raccoons because when your household pets interact or chase and hunt down the raccoons, they tend to take up and get transmitted the viruses and bacteria that raccoons carry.
Raccoons are unpredictable
On top of carrying all these fatal illness causing pathogens, the raccoons themselves are also very unpredictable and temperamental. They are at the end of the day wild animals and they see almost everyone as predators if we are not one of their kind. So although at first they might hide and appear to be scared, we won’t know when they would plan to attack us to chase us away from their new habitat which is your home. Keep away from these kinds of small animals and also ensure that everyone in your house is protected against the possible pathogens and their associated illnesses. This is especially true for children and elderly over 60 to 65 years old.
Keeping raccoons away from your house
Raccoons are omnivorous, so it basically means they will eat anything and everything that is edible for their diet of both plants and other animals. This includes eating from the trash cans and even eating pet food! So make sure that you keep your trash well sealed up and your trash cans close all the time. They are sneaky and can smell food easily from miles away, so be careful with exposing your trash at all times. This includes keeping them away from exposure even during night time, when the raccoons are most active as they are nocturnal creatures.
As mentioned before since raccoons are nocturnal creatures, we have to ensure that even our house pets do not interact with them at night. So keep your pets in at night and keep the pet door locked. This is because the raccoons can enter the house through the pet doors as well. Therefore secure this entry point especially at night when pets are generally asleep and would not be using these doors.
Use ‘obstacles’ to scare away unwanted raccoons
Remember that small tactics to scare off these type of rodents would only be a temporary solution. This is especially true if they have already been residing in your house for a while now. They would have already formed a nest and have had been living there for too long for them to change their habitat. So scaring them off with bright lights and loud noises would not keep them out for a long time. They would still find another route and way back into the spot in your house to that they have accommodated to. This is especially true for mother raccoons that have to protect their litter against predators and for larger raccoons who are more resistant to move.
If ever you face a raccoon problem, call us, Sande Wildlife Control today to help you sort things out with the infestation problem. Try not to handle it yourself as it can be dangerous for the abovementioned reasons, mainly because they might attack you anytime and also they carry too many dangerous pathogens for you to ever get into contact with them.