Experts share their best tips for deterring these nocturnal bandits from looting your garbage.
They work and eat from dusk to dawn.
They can eat anything and everything, which explains why they find our discarded food so appealing!
Photo:Rob Atkins/Getty Images
They love fried chicken, pizza, hamburgers, you name it.
The more fat and calories, the better, just like humans.
If your trash contains no food, they will quickly learn to leave it alone.
Lock the Trash Can
Maybe its not feasible to keep all food out of your garbage.
They can try, but if they cant get in it, theyll leave it alone.
He recommends securing your cans with a bungee cord.
Wait to Put Out the Trash
Our trash is a raccoons treasure!
Thats what we have provided for raccoonsan easy, high-calorie source of food.
Its no wonder that raccoons love us.
So, heres one instance where it pays to procrastinate.
They are amazing little carnivores that are just trying to co-exist with us.
The best way to keep them out of our trash is pretty straightforward, she says.
Dont put the trash out in bins until trash collection day!
Keep your bins inside or locked up.
Keep your garbage cans as clean as possible, Broderick urges.
Dont Worry About Hungry Raccoons
So what happens when we take away their free buffet?
Wont the raccoons go hungry?
I have been worried about that myself, says Dr. MacDonald.
After Toronto introduced new raccoon-resistant organic bins, I thought that raccoons would be starving on the streets!
However, she says, their weights did not change at all because they found other food sources.
They are very adaptable.
