In order to catch and trap raccoons, you have to know the best raccoon bait. Raccoons are showing up all the time now. They’re eating everything in sight, have moved into your home, and are damaging your property. What are you going to do about your raccoon problems?

When it comes to getting rid of raccoons you can catch them, kill them, or run them away. Personally I recommend you do not kill them, instead, you should catch and release them or run them away from your property.

We recommend you trap the animal using some irresistible raccoon bait and once trapped you release or remove them. I’ll tell you more about this in a minute. But for now, I have a few other things to discuss that you should be aware of to better understand why raccoons are on your property in the first place.

Why Do Raccoons Live In Urban And Rural Areas?

Raccoons are smart, adaptive, and creative animals who seem not to be phased by people. In fact, they have learned to coexist with humans and can be found more frequently living in close proximity to suburbs, urban and rural residential areas.

But why is this the case that raccoons are so comfortable and feel the need to live around people? Raccoons have relocated and are only foraging because there is no other way for them to get food. You should not blame and penalize an animal for wanting to survive.  When it gets to a point where raccoons are looking to people for food it means the food is not readily available in their natural habitat.

Why You Should Not Kill Raccoons

It’s pointless to kill raccoons just because they have encroached on your property. Because there are much easier ways to handle your raccoon situation. Start with what you can do to prevent raccoons from being attracted to your home and property. If prevention is not possible and you already have raccoons to deal with your next best option is to trap the raccoons and relocate them.

If relocation is not possible or against the law you should consider humane ways to euthanize the raccoons. Let’s talk some more about raccoon trapping and what baits to use to get the animals inside the cage. I must warn you beforehand, you can have the best trap in the world and be unsuccessful.

You’ll be unsuccessful in trapping the raccoon if you do not use the correct bait. Raccoons are very intelligent and have been known to outsmart people at every turn. That said you have to be creative when it comes to baiting the trap for a raccoon. They can increase your chance if you use a more appealing and enticing bait. That said, you might be thinking what is the best bait for raccoons.

So what is the best raccoon bait? The best bait must be so tempting and so irresistible the raccoon will want to leap inside your trap in order to get a taste. You can use a commercial bait or you can use store-bought ingredients. Raccoons love to get their paws on foods like peanut butter, jelly, and marshmallows so you should try baiting your trap with these first.

Okay, we just gave away some of our best and top-secret baits for raccoons. But we have much more information and baits for you. Check out what we have below.

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What Are The Best Raccoon Baits?

You probably already know raccoons will eat just about anything when they get hungry. They will tip over your garbage can and feed on all the goodies they find inside. If you make things easy for them, the raccoon will return night after night to eat from your trash cans. To prevent this behavior you should use bungee cords to tie your lids so tightly that they won’t come off even when you can is tipped over on its side.

But what are the best baits for trapping raccoons? We have found that sweet-tasting and fatty foods are the best baits to place in live traps.

If you use food items like jelly, peanut butter, crispy bacon, and you will have not problem luring raccoons inside your live trap. Start with just one of these baits we mention here and if at first you don’t succeed try again until you do.  Work your way through the list until one of these baits work on your particular raccoon. Change out your baits daily.

If neither of these bait options works we do have a few more for you to try out.

• Fresh Smoked or Canned Fish
• Marshmallows
• Sweet Corn
• Vegetables Coated With Honey or Sugar
• Wet Canned Pet Food

How to Trap Raccoons With Baits

It’s way too easy to trap and remove a raccoon or any other animal if you use the right bait and set the trap properly. But don’t take just my word for it. Check out the video below. The video was made by a professional animal trapper and exterminator. In the video, he shares everything you need to know about catching small wild animals like squirrels, raccoons, possums, including…

• How traps works
• How to bait the trap
• What baits are the best to use
• Where to set the traps

Watch the video below for some expert advice that will help you trap raccoons.

How to Prevent Raccoons

We believe raccoon prevention to be the best option for homeowners or anyone else who wants to get rid of raccoons. You have to make your home less attractive to raccoons and then implement a few control methods to deter them from wanting to come on your property.

How to Make Your Home Less Attractive

Food is the main reason raccoons have taken over your yard and home. They smell food, come see what you have, and eat whatever they can find. So why did raccoons suddenly show up at your house unannounced? Raccoons came after the food, nothing else, just for something to eat. They did not choose your home by accident.

They were attracted by the smell and presence of food. If you eliminate or remove the food their temptation is reduced and they will go looking somewhere else. You can make your home unattractive by doing the following:

• Secure your outside garbage can lid with a bungee cord
• Don’t leave any pet food outside overnight
• Clean up fallen fruit, berries, and nuts from your plants and trees
• Remove all other outside food sources before that attract raccoons

Control Methods To Prevent Raccoons

What methods are available now that you have made your home less attractive for the raccoon species? We like to place and spray repellents in areas that are frequented raccoons. By doing so you can keep them off of objects and surfaces. The raccoon repellent types we like best are

• Electronic water sprinkles – these motion-activated devices will frighten raccoons and scare them off
• Granular repellents – create a barrier by sprinkle these around areas you want to keep raccoons away from
• Liquid repellents – spray onto trash cans, sheds, doors, and porches to protect against raccoons

What Kind Of Damage Can Raccoons Do?

Raccoons are known for tipping over trash cans and scattering the contents all over the yard. This type of damage is only a small sampling of what raccoons can really do. They can be much more destructive and cause hundreds, even thousands of dollars worth of property damage if they get inside your home.

Raccoons can create holes in your walls, rip apart air ducts, chew through electrical wires, and tear off installation from your pipes. Take for example the kind of damage a raccoon can cause if he gets inside your attic. If given the means and opportunity to get inside your attic in very little time a family of raccoons can rip through all of your insulation thus affecting your heating and cooling bill.

Even worse than destroying your installation, raccoons can fill your attic with harmful and smelly animal waste like urine and feces. The urine and feces from raccoons like most animals can lead to serious health issues. Not to mention, the unpleasant and odorous smells of these waste products can take months to get rid of. Repairing all of this damage can be costly. That’s why it is so important to get raccoons out of your home as quickly, safely and efficiently as possible.

Don’t Feed The Raccoons

When you feed wild animals they become dependent on people and in the end will suffer when humans decide they are a nuisance and should not be around.

Let wild animals be wild and never feed the wildlife are two rules I like to live by. But strangely enough, I have found this is not the case for some people who are fascinated by raccoons. They find raccoons cute and watch them for hours on end. These same people will even feed the raccoons daily and consider them to be like outside pets.

They provide bowls of food and water for the animals to eat and drink. They attract and entice the raccoons into their yards with foods and watch them as they eat and play around — like some form of entertainment.

These behaviors may be all fine and dandy for a while but what happens when the fun and games are over. What happens when these people no longer find raccoons to be cute and entertaining. What happens when they want the raccoons to go away forever?