Why Raccoons Are The Perfect Urban Pests

Among all of the wild animals that could infest your home raccoons are probably some of the worst frequent offenders. 

It’s not uncommon for a Wildlife specialist to respond to a pest call only to realize that an entire family of raccoons were living in a secret hole somewhere in the house or in the attic! 

Raccoons have unique abilities that other wild animals don’t have that make them perfect pests. 

In today’s post, we’re going to share some of the reasons that make raccoons the perfect pests and what you can do to protect your home, health, and family. 

To watch the video version of this post complete with fascinating raccoon footage, click HERE now. 

You can also download the audio-only podcast by clicking the podcast widget above. 

Raccoon Special Abilities 

Raccoons have many special abilities that give them an advantage among other wild animals. 

The urbanization of the world and development of cities forced many wild animals to retreat into nature, or unfortunately go extinct, but raccoons have actually thrived and out-performed other wild creatures with the expansion of humanity. 

Raccoons can be found living within every North American city, and are said to be the most adapted for urban city life - only behind humans. 

Human-like Hands 

One of the apparently obvious features of raccoons is their human-like hands. While other creatures will struggle to operate human environments, raccoons have fine hand control that allows them to engage with human tools and urban environments. 

They can undo locks, open doors, open drawers, and perform other complicated tasks with their little hands. It also gives them an extra edge when it comes to climbing! 

Their ability to use their hands carefully also allows them to cause great damage to properties when they do infest them. 

Above-average Intelligence

Raccoons are some of the most intelligent wild animals out there besides primates and dolphins. 

When it comes to solving puzzles for food, raccoons performed excellently and demonstrated very high levels of intelligence when faced with difficult, complex challenges. 

In fact, recent scientific studies have revealed that urban raccoons are significantly more intelligent than rural raccoons, suggesting that our cities are actually training them to become more intelligent and allow for more intelligent raccoons to reproduce in higher numbers.

Persistence Trait 

Combined with their intelligence all raccoons are highly persistent creatures. This persistence allows raccoons to patiently try over and over on a failed challenge until they succeed. 

Persistence combined with intelligence is a deadly combination, and a simple observation of city raccoons will reveal just how persistent and smart they have become. 

Raccoons are very well aware that we humans have an abundance of food and trash waiting to be rummaged. They use this awareness combined with intelligence & persistence to get what they want.  

Innate Desire To Explore 

Raccoons don’t make good domesticated pets because they are typically more aggressive, carry diseases, and are also very nomadic. 

Raccoons prefer to be independent and explore on their own terms. Trying to restrain a raccoon to just a house may not go down well. 

Anyways, they might just figure out how to open doors or windows on their own! 

Night Bandits

Being nocturnal creatures, raccoons prefer to go out at night time and aren’t seen often out in the daytime. 

Because of this not many people are aware of just how many raccoons are infesting their cities.

Raccoons prefer to avoid human contact whenever possible and sleep during the day so most people don’t even realize that it is raccoons that are ruling in the night time! 

Climbing Ability
 
Raccoons are excellent climbers because of their hands, but their balance is also great. They are easily capable of climbing human structures. 

Being smaller-sized animals, they also frequently find small entrances or even create their own pathways in human structures. 

Raccoons & Pest Infestation

Raccoons can be difficult to deal with. They may get aggressive, and are a rabies vector species, which means that they can also be quite dangerous to deal with as they may spread rabies. 

If you think that you have a wildlife or pest infestation of any kind of wildlife or pest, don’t hesitate to call us at 855-WILDLIFE or visit www.wildlifexteam.com for more information. 

We specialize in safe & responsible removal of wildlife and pest infestation, and return wild animals to the wild where they belong whenever possible. 

Thanks! 
-Wildlife x Team International