Growing flowers in your garden is a relaxing and rewarding hobby. Unfortunately, all your hard work can be wiped out by wild animals. A variety of mammals love to visit your garden and feast on the flowers, leaves, shrubs, and trees in your garden.

If you’re growing geraniums, animals will feed on them as well. So, do raccoons eat geraniums? This article looks into it. 

Raccoons aren’t fond of eating geraniums, many animals aren’t, geraniums have thick, leathery and fuzzy flowers, raccoons don’t enjoy eating them. However, a raccoon will eat geraniums if there is nothing else to eat. 

Do raccoons eat geraniums?

Raccoons are known to eat almost anything, especially when hungry.

These animals are omnivores, they eat both plant and animal matter. They are also opportunistic feeders which means that they will eat almost anything put in front of them. 

If raccoons find themselves in suburban areas, they will enter your garden and eat your plants, they can also eat geraniums. Many animals don’t particularly enjoy eating geraniums but they will if they have to.

Raccoons aren’t fans of this flower’s thick leathery and fuzzy petals but if food is scarce, and raccoons have nothing else to eat, then they will eat the flowers. 

Do raccoons eat flowers? 

Raccoons do eat flowers, these animals are attracted to the sweet smell of flowers, they have a strong sense of smell and will be able to smell your flowers from a long way away.

Raccoons can eat almost every flower from roses to water lilies to water hyacinth 

What animals eat geraniums?

Geraniums are quite pest-resistant, animals that regularly eat flowers, like deer, rabbits, and other furry animals, will generally keep away from this strong-smelling flower.

Both types of geraniums are quite pest-resistant (the annual geranium and the perennial geranium).

Animals don’t like that these flowers have thick leaves. Then again, if food is scarce, animals will bite the bullet and eat these plants 

Rats:

Rats are the only animals that seem to enjoy geraniums, in fact, these animals can damage your flowers in a very big way. Rats will eat the buds off of your geraniums preventing them from growing into flowers 

Birds:

Birds do not eat geraniums, but, they will suck the nectar out of these flowers, hummingbirds suck geranium nectar. Birds cannot chew and thus, won’t be able to eat the flowers in any case 

Geranium budworms:

Geranium budworms are also called tobacco budworms.

These insects are known for eating geraniums, a sign of these insects eating your geraniums are small holes on your geranium flowers, leaves, and buds. If you’re looking for these insects, check your geraniums around dusk, this is when these insects feed 

Other insects:

Other insects that eat geraniums include mites, aphids, and butterflies 

How do you keep animals from eating geraniums?

If animals do decide to eat your geraniums you can combat this by: 

Grow them out of reach:

If you can, grow your geraniums in potted plants and place them on shelves high up or hang them.

If possible, plant the flowers in tall containers, try to find containers that are too tall for animals to reach or jump into

Hardware wire:

Chicken wire is sometimes used to create enclosures around gardens, but some animals, like raccoons, can bite through chicken wire. Rather make an enclosure using hardware wire.

Bury this wire at least 12 inches deep to keep critters out. 

Repellents:

If your geraniums are being eaten by a variety of animals, you may need to use a variety of different repellents to keep them away, each will be labeled for the type of animal that it repels. 

Traps:

If all else fails, you can always try trapping and releasing the animal. You need a trap specially made for the animal you’re trying to trap. You’d also need to use the appropriate bait for the type of animal you want to trap.

Release the animal after you’ve trapped it. Note: Check that the laws in your area allow you to trap and release wild animals

Dogs:

Wild animals aren’t fond of dogs,  if you can, get a dog to keep wild animals away from your flowers. 

Conclusion  

In conclusion, no, raccoons don’t usually eat geraniums.

This flower may be pretty and have a strong smell, but raccoons and other animals aren’t fond of them. These flowers have a thick, leathery, and fluffy texture that most animals don’t enjoy.

However, because raccoons are opportunistic feeders, they will eat this flower if they have to and if food is scarce 

If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other raccoon related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Do raccoons eat geese?, Do raccoons eat grasshoppers?, Do raccoons eat groundhogs?, Do raccoons eat green tomatoes?,