Killing a Nuisance Raccoon

Raccoons are curious creatures. Unfortunately, their investigations can result in damage to your property, tipped over garbage cans, raided gardens, and half-eaten crops. The amount of destruction that raccoons cause often make them a nuisance that people are keen to get rid of.

If you’re tired and frustrated from trying to deal with a nuisance raccoon, you may be considering killing it. There’s more than one way to kill a raccoon, including shooting, using lethal traps, or trying to poison it.

But before you grab the kit to kill your problem raccoon, check that you won’t face legal penalties first.

Legalities on killing raccoons

Before you set out to use any means of removing the raccoons yourself (either lethal or relocation), contact your state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife to learn the regulations. In some regions, you can kill raccoons under certain circumstances, but a permit or license is required. In other areas, it is prohibited.

How to Kill a Raccoon

If you’re looking to kill your nuisance raccoon, the next step would be to work out the best way to do it. Below, we’ll take a look at what the different options are.

Lethal Traps

Lethal traps are one of the more commonly used options for killing raccoons. They are also indiscriminate about what they kill, so if you use one, be very careful about where you place it.

Bait and set the trap in an area that a raccoon is most likely to trigger it: near a garden or garbage can they raid, or at the entrance to their dens. Lethal traps, such as body grip traps, are designed to kill the raccoon instantly, but it doesn’t always work. Sometimes it’s a slow, painful death, or the animal survives but is so severely injured that you will need to euthanize it.

Raccoon Poison

Poisons are never a good option when it comes to pest control. It’s haphazard, lazy, and ineffective. There are no registered or legal raccoon poisons. If you’re thinking about trying to use a higher dose of a rodenticide, anti-freeze, etc.: don’t.

There’s no way to ensure that the poison is eaten by the raccoon and not another animal. The raccoon can be sick and in pain for an extended amount of time before dying, and will likely crawl away and hide, leaving you with the unpleasant task of locating and disposing of the carcass. There’s also the fact that animals’ noses are more sensitive than ours; by the time you have noticed the smell of the decaying body, it will have already attracted scavengers.

Shooting Nuisance Raccoons

Shooting raccoons is only an option in rural locations. If you live in a town or city, skip this one.

As always, when killing wildlife, check state regulations first. Some will allow the killing of nuisance raccoons on your property; in other regions, it’s illegal.

Better Options

Killing a raccoon isn’t the only way of getting rid of it. While hiring a professional to take care of it for you is a great option, it’s not your only choice.

Here are some DIY ways to get rid of nuisance raccoons that don’t involve killing

Raccoon Prevention

he best solution to raccoon problems is never to have to deal with them in the first place. By removing things that attract raccoons to your yard, and erecting barriers to keep them out, you reduce the chances of raccoons visiting and causing problems. 

Tidy up any clutter in your yard, and remove food sources by:

  • Keeping your garbage can sealed. (You can even go one step further and keep an ammonia-soaked rag at the bottom of the can to disguise the smell of any food scraps.)
  • Harvesting any fruit or vegetables as soon as they ripen, and pick up any dropped fruit from trees.
  • Cleaning up areas under bird feeders and place baffles on the stand so that raccoons can’t climb up.
Exclusion
  • Exclude raccoons from your yard by erecting a fence: installing L-footers to prevent them from digging under, and an electric wire at the top to stop them from climbing over it.
  • Prune any trees that would give raccoons access over the fence, or to your roof, so that they don’t make a den in your attic.
  • Check your house for gaps in the eaves and soffits that the raccoon could enter through. Even a small hole will need to be repaired, as the raccoons will enlarge it to access the warm, safe space inside.
  • If the raccoon is already inside, then seal up all gaps except for the largest. Then install an exclusion door over it so that the next time to raccoon leaves, it will be sealed out, and have to find a new home.
    Live Trapping

    If you really can’t get rid of them, then use live traps. Buy a cage trap large enough to hold a raccoon, and set it up the same way you would a lethal trap. The only difference is that it won’t harm the raccoon.

    You’ll still need to check with your state Department of Fish and Wildlife regarding relocation regulations. If they don’t allow for relocation, you can generally call a wildlife removal agency to collect it.