Raccoons are wild and curious mammals that usually invade human settlements to look for worms & insects or dine in the garbage can. You might want to keep these mid-size animals away from your property because they might chew flowers in the garden & lawn or cause property damage. Female raccoons, for example, will damage the roof or deck to build a cozy nest.
As a homeowner, you might want to know whether a porch light will help to keep raccoons away. Indeed, porch lights will keep the exterior well-lit apart from repelling nocturnal animals and creatures like raccoons.
This is why you need to read this guide to know if a porch light functions when dealing with raccoons at home.
Do Porch Lights Deter Raccoons?
Raccoons are nocturnal animals that are sensitive to light. So, porch lights will deter raccoons from inviting themselves into your compound. Moreover, motion-censored porch lights can be practical in deterring raccoons. Place the lights in different spots to discourage raccoons.
But as much as you are doing everything possible to keep raccoons away at night, you should know that not all raccoons avoid porch lights. You need to incorporate the use of porch lights with innovative tricks to keep the most stubborn raccoons away.
Apart from the raccoons’ nocturnal nature, a few factors will keep raccoons away from your porch.
The first one is the surface area a porch light hits. If the light covers the entire entryway, raccoons stay away from the porch.
The second factor is the porch light’s brightness: The brighter the lights, the more the effect.
Finally, the design/functionality of the porch light: Motion-censored porch lights are more effective than ordinary ones.
You can use efficient porch lights like solar flashing lights to keep raccoons away. These types of lights are portable and work even during blackouts. LED motion-activated lights can also be a functional alternative on the porch to keep raccoons away. LED flood lights have higher intensity and are brighter than solar-powered porch lights.
What Color Light Keeps Raccoons Away?
Although not 100% proven, these intelligent omnivores prefer a warm color like white from incandescent or halogen bulbs. You might notice a raccoon near a bright white bulb than red light. But you need to practically observe their behavior around the porch by changing the light bulb’s color.
Raccoons don’t always avoid light, especially if they have marked your home as a food source. These mammals are intelligent, tenacious, and persistent. It is almost impossible to stop them if they identify your home as a food source. So, colored porch lights do not guarantee effective repellants.
The high-pressure sodium lamps, sodium vapor lamps, and mercury vapor lamps are a few red lighting bulbs. You can purchase a bright red bulb to make the porch sharper. Furthermore, you can install flashing red lights to frighten them away.
You can probably say that raccoons are afraid of bright red lights because this color symbolizes fire. But it is not proven.
Do Wind Chimes Keep Raccoons Away?
Wind chimes produce soothing/inharmonic musical sounds for humans to enjoy. Raccoons, however, find the light and delicate twinkling sound loud and irritating. Hence, keep away from a porch with wind chimes.
You shouldn’t limit yourself from installing additional wind chimes on the porch because raccoons might familiarize themselves with the sound after a while, especially if your house is a food source. You should change the light and delicate wind chimes with high-pitched chimes to keep raccoons away. This is an effective technique that might scare them.
Also, you can utilize raccoon-repelling techniques like installing repellant lights and adding odor to make the wind chime appear natural.
How Far Away Can Raccoons Smell Food?
Raccoons have a strong sense of smell and can detect food from a distance. Although the distance is unknown, these adept omnivores will naturally follow their instincts to find food sources in your compound.
In case you did not know, raccoons will invade your compound if you leave pet food outside. Also, they will mark their territory in your compound with urine after each visit.
Fortunately, you can use their strong sense of smell to your advantage if you want to repel them. Using garlic and peppermint oil guarantees effective results.
What Scent Will Keep Raccoons Away?
Like most other wildlife creatures, raccoons have a strong sense of smell. But these mid-size mammals do not like peppermint oil, garlic, hot pepper, onion, and a few other pungent smells. So, as a property owner, you can use their limitation to your advantage.
Here is a list of several scents that will keep raccoons away.
Hot pepper
Hot pepper scent will irritate a raccoon’s olfactory glands and repel it.
Regularly sprinkle hot pepper on potential raccoon spots to discourage them from visiting.
Peppermint essential oil
Most critters, including raccoons, hate the smell of peppermint. So, sprinkling peppermint essential oil in your compound will deter persistent raccoons.
Epsom salt
Epsom salt is among the most effective scents to keep a raccoon away. Most raccoons find the smell of Epsom salt irritating; hence keep a safe distance away.
Predator urine
The dog urine smell around your compound helps keep raccoons away. When a raccoon smells dog urine, it will be cautious and slowly refrain from visiting locations with this smell.
Other scents
Many homeowners think will repel raccoons including black or cayenne pepper, cinnamon, ammonia, vinegar, and bright lights. You can try using any of the mentioned scents and see if they will repel your compound’s raccoons.
How to Keep Raccoons Away Naturally?
Using natural methods to keep raccoons away will save you time and money. Also, they are an effective long-term solution if you want to deal with the situation fast. As a homeowner, always consider the best alternative from the list below.
Deal with any food source
Among the main reasons raccoons come to your home is to look for food. Remember that raccoons are omnivores. So, they prefer leftovers from the kitchen, like fish, bread, meat, and veggies.
So, if you take away the food source, they will reduce the number of visits to your compound.
You should empty garbage cans or close the lids tightly with straps and cords to prevent them from accessing their contents. Also, you can keep trash cans inside the garage or any lockable outdoor structure.
Secure raccoon’s entry points
Check any entry points around your home and secure them because raccoons will often look for comfortable nesting locations around the home.
Repair holes in the fence or install a non-accessible wire mesh fence.
Use odor deterrents
Sprinkle a mixture of crushed garlic and chili powder on your porch to irritate raccoons. Moreover, you can also use ammonia, onion, peppermint oil, and Epsom salt as deterrents.
Regularly clean your compound.
Raccoons enjoy garbage heaps. So, you should regularly keep your compound spotless. Ensure your grill is clean (if it is on the deck).
Make the garden less attractive.
Raccoons are resourceful and use their skills to get inside the garden. So, you can make your garden less attractive by removing materials like woodpiles & untidy shrubbery that raccoons might use as dens to discourage them.
You can also trim long and overhang tree branches close to the rooflines.
Other Ways to Keep Raccoons off the Porch
Maintaining tidy surroundings, keeping trash cans secure, and fencing your compound correctly are a few practical techniques that will keep raccoons away. They carry diseases like Salmonellosis, Rabies, and Roundworms. So, it is always advisable to keep them off the porch using effective techniques.
Keeping raccoons away guarantees safe surroundings because they are wild animals and can be a threat to your pets. They are also stubborn and destructive.
Here are other ways to keep raccoons off your porch:
Install motion-activated sprinklers or LED motion lights:
Motion-activated sprinklers or LED motion lights to guarantee effective results to keep raccoons away. These accessories are cheap and easy to install.
The motion sensors activate the sprinkles or LED light whenever a raccoon visits your compound.
Spray raccoon repellant on bird feeders
Raccoons will come to your compound to look for high-calorie foods – and bird feeders are a great source of nuts, bird fruits, and seeds. So, you should spray the bird feeders with raccoon deterrents to discourage them.
Alternatively, you can place bird feeders on spots that raccoons cannot access. Preferably on slippery poles where they cannot climb with their dexterous paws.
Protect fish in the ponds
Most homeowners might have a backyard fish pond. If you have a fishpond, surrounding it with a deterrent will keep raccoons away. Similarly, creating a deep end on the fishpond will prevent raccoons from getting inside the water.
Tip: As much as fish is among a raccoon’s favorite meals, they will hardly get inside the fishpond to look for fish. They are not expert swimmers.
Keep pet foods away: Raccoons are usually attracted by the scent of food in your compound. So, you should always take the dishes inside after feeding your dogs, cats, or other outdoor pets.
Sprinkle granular repellent around fruit trees
Raccoons are attracted to fruits like peach, apples, and plums. So, you can sprinkle the base of all fruit trees in your orchard with granular repellent to prevent raccoons from climbing the trees.
Also, you should pick all fallen fruits to keep raccoons away.
Scare them off
You can install pinwheels or streamers in your garden to discourage the raccoons from getting comfortable in the garden.
Use live raccoon traps
A live raccoon trap is also effective for dealing with raccoons in your home. However, you must be extra cautious when dealing with a captured raccoon because some can be aggressive and resist captivity.
The best raccoon trap is the live cage trap. AVOID USING THE DOG PROOF OR FOOTHOLD TRAPS as alternatives because they can injure a raccoon’s paw.
Conclusion
Raccoons are intelligent creatures. They will instinctively locate food in your compound using their well-adapted sense of smell. Moreover, they will ravage through trash cans and the garden with their agile paws.
Fortunately, this guide has explained all the effective ways to keep these nocturnal mammals away. You can use the abovementioned techniques to deter raccoons from your compound permanently.
In case of complications when dealing with raccoons, you need to call a veterinarian to help get the situation under control.