Do raccoons burrow or dig holes?

Raccoons are known to be cute animals, and they may look cuddly and fun when someone is watching them. However, these raccoons are known to cause extensive damage when they decide to tear up the lawns while digging holes on people’s properties.

Even if many creatures may dig holes in your yard, the holes that are dug during the night are likely to be from raccoons or skunks. Their holes look like cones and they are three to four inches wide, but sometimes they may make holes up to 10 inches wide. The holes will appear in gardens or in the lawns when raccoons start to forage to get grubs or insects. The raccoon may also peel back newly laid sod when they look for their food.

Raccoons are known to eat different animals and plants. They like grains, corns, acorns, nuts, berries and fruits. Even if the raccoons are known to be associated with the wooded or rural areas, they also live in urban or suburban places. They tend to live under decks and in chimneys, storm drains, culverts, crawl spaces, ground burrows, rock crevices, brush piles, outbuildings and hollow trees.

If you do not want the raccoons to dig in your area, you should control it through making sure that there are no insect larvae in the lawn so that they do not dig for them. The microscopic roundworms known as beneficial nematodes may be introduced into the soil so that they may kill the grubs which the raccoons are known to feed at. Even if they may return to get such food, in the end, they may give up. You may also hire a wildlife professional to help you to get rid of the raccoons if it continues digging in your garden.

Go back to the How to Get Rid of Raccoons page or email us if you have any other questions about Do raccoons burrow or dig holes?