There's nothing that can raise your blood pressure like watching raccoons dig up your beautiful yard! The first thing people see when they pull onto your driveway is the yard you spent so much time and money on. Coming home to see your pretty garden and expensive sod destroyed by a wild animal can ruin your whole day!

At Apex Wildlife Control, our technicians are devoted to helping our customers stop this kind of damage by trapping the little masked bandits responsible. If your sod is rolled up neatly, it has probably been pulled up by a raccoon. Often an armadillo or skunk can create the same damage, but it takes a wildlife expert to tell the difference.  However, if you see signs of your trash cans being invaded, it could also be an opossum since they are considered the "trash collectors" of the wildlife community. 

Our highly skilled technicians are trained to look for these signs of raccoons on your property.  At Apex Wildlife Control, we offer humane raccoon trapping and removal for the entire Memphis area. So if those pesky little raccoons are digging up your yard in Collierville TN, you have come to the right place!  We're here to help!

The key way to identify the correct animal species involved is to look around your home and property for signs of wildlife.  If it is raccoons that you suspect are plowing up your yard, digging in the begonias, look for fecal droppings for verification. 

Next, do you have outdoor trash receptacles, and have you noticed that something is getting into the trash?  Have neighbors seen wildlife and also complained about similar damage around their homes? These are the types of things to consider to identify whether or not it is raccoons that are creating havoc in your yard and garden.

Raccoons are nocturnal animals. So, if you don’t see any during daytime hours that's an good indication that you are dealing with a raccoon. Raccoons will dig in the dirt looking for grubs and other larvae insects. If your yard happens to be a plentiful food source they will return to the to your yard over and over again.  If your yard is sodded you may also see your sod is rolled up when it is a raccoon that has been at work. Skunks and opossums will dig spots that are similar to a raccoon, but raccoons are more common.

You can also remove the reasons that raccoons are drawn to your yard by taking a few preventative measures. Wild animals tend to only stay in an area where something is attracting them. Keep this in mind as you continue to look around your property.

Do you see anything that would bring wildlife to your door? Are the trash containers secured tightly? Do you know of any neighbors that may be feeding stray dogs, cats or other wildlife that would also attract raccoons to your neighborhood?  If you have cats or dogs that you feed outside you will want to ensure that none of the food is left out after your pets have eaten. Raccoons will eat practically anything, but especially LOVE cat food.

After checking the easy fixes that involve securing trash can lids and diligently picking up leftover pet food after feeding time, take a good look at your lawn. Do you notice any brown spots? You could possibly have an overpopulation of grubs and insects in the dirt if the answer is yes. Grubs are like candy to raccoons so if you rid your lawn of grubs then your lawn will tend to be healthier with fewer raccoons.

The wildlife technicians at Apex Wildlife Control are very successful with outside trapping. It is  rare that we do not get the species that we target for trapping.  Our company uses humane, live traps that will not cause harm to any animal that is caught.  These traps allow an animal to easily enter the trap, but they will need our assistance to get out. We trap for a total of seven days and set multiple traps. We schedule our technicians to return to your home three times during this seven-day period (every 36 hours) to check the traps. We remove any animals that are caught, add more traps if necessary, and reset and rebait the traps if needed.

We will ask our clients to check the traps daily between the scheduled trap checks and let us know promptly if they find any animal has been trapped  We also ask that all dogs be kept leashed and away from the traps for their own safety.  Dogs can become stuck in the trap, eat the bait, and render a trap useless for its intended purpose to trap a raccoon.

Since raccoons are known to love cat food some people will use it for bait. However, if you have pet cats or your neighborhood has a plethora of stray cats, cat food would not be the bait to use. We use a bait that only attracts raccoon in an effort to avoid accidentally trapping cats or other domestic animals.

Once a raccoon has been trapped we will relocate it to a new area that is 25 miles away so that it cannot find its way back to your property. Raccoons are tough little critters yet their chances for survival in its new surroundings are somewhat reduced in that they may have to hide from predators while locating an area that is not already occupied, and find new sources for food and water. This is why we attempt to educate our clients on the various ways to deter raccoons from coming onto their property. Sadly, relocation is sometimes the only thing that can be done to keep your home and lawn from being ruined by these cute little bandits.

At Apex Wildlife Control, our skilled technicians are trained to set humane traps to catch raccoons without harm.  Once the raccoon has been captured, the technician will relocate it to a reserve over twenty miles from your home so that this furry little fellow will never find its way back to your property.

If you have seen or suspect that it is a family of raccoons that is digging in your yard, you will want to count them.  Knowing the exact number of raccoons in the family will be helpful to us. We will set the same number of traps for the best chances to trap the family at the same time. Whenever a family of any species is involved we will try our best to trap them at the same time so that they will be relocated and released together for a greater chance of survival.

If you have any questions or concerns about raccoons in your yard, in Collierville, TN, please give us a call at 901-598-8555.  We will be happy to help!