Wild animals love wandering into our gardens looking for a snack or a meal.

We humans tirelessly tend to our gardens, make sure we maintain our plants, and give them everything they need to grow well, unfortunately, wild animals can end up reaping a lot of the benefits. Is this true for raccoons? Do raccoons eat pears? This article looks into it. 

Raccoons do eat pears, these animals enjoy all types of fruits, pears included. Pears are sweet, juicy, and delicious fruits for not only people but for animals as well. They are also beneficial as they deliver a variety of vitamins and minerals into the animal’s body 

Do raccoons eat pears?

Raccoons will eat, or try to eat, anything put in front of them. They are omnivores, thus they eat both plant and animal matter.

These animals are also opportunistic feeders, they have the ability to eat almost anything and everything.

Fruits are a favorite food of raccoons, they enjoy eating pears 

Benefits of raccoons eating pears:

Pears are juicy, sweet, and tasty fruits. Humans enjoy them and it is no wonder why raccoons enjoy them too. These fruits have healthy amounts of sugar in them, this sugar gives raccoons an energy boost. 

In addition, pears are loaded with a variety of vitamins and minerals namely: potassium, phosphorous, antioxidants, manganese, magnesium, copper, fiber, vitamin C, and vitamin K

Pears are also low in calories, raccoons can safely eat a lot of pears without becoming overweight.

Raccoons that ingest more calories than they need will gain weight and become overweight. An overweight raccoon can develop diabetes, high blood pressure, and this added weight can negatively affect how the animal reproduces. 

How to raccoons find and eat pears:

Raccoons are able to eat pears because their bodies are built to eat both plant and animal matter. They have paws that resemble and act like human hands, grabbing and wrapping their fingers around foods when they need to.

Raccoons will pick a pear and bring it to its mouth as humans do. This is unlike how other animals, like dogs and cats, eat their foods. Their teeth are able to chew and grind food just as human and herbivore teeth can

Living in suburban areas has made raccoons lazy. In the wild, raccoons either had to forage for food at night, keeping an eye out for predators, or they had to hunt and prey on small animals for food.

Raccoons living in suburban areas have it easy, they simply need to find their way into your yard and pick a pear when no one is around.

These animals have always been the type to choose the easiest meal as a means to conserve energy, but living in suburban areas has made it even easier for these animals. 

Raccoons don’t only eat fruits, they eat a variety of foods. This article looks more into what animals raccoons eat

How to keep raccoons out of fruit trees 

If you’re dealing with raccoons eating the pears off of your pear trees it’s important to stop this from happening if you want to enjoy all the fruits that your trees can produce.

Here are methods that can help keep raccoons out of your pear, and other fruit trees: 

Ammonia:

Raccoons have a very strong sense of smell and do not like the smell of ammonia. Use this to your advantage by leaving some ammonia-soaked rags on saucers and place these around your pear trees 

Bird netting:

Bird netting is not only useful when you’re wanting to keep birds away from your pear trees, this netting will also keep raccoons out of your pear trees as well.

These animals won’t want to get trapped or tangled in the netting, they will thus avoid the netting 

Citrus:

Citrus and raccoons don’t mix, these animals will be repelled by whatever citrus you use around your pear trees. You can leave citrus peels, lemon juice, or orange essential oil around your pear trees to keep raccoons away

Traps:

If your trees are being raided by one or two raccoons you may decide to use live traps to trap the raccoons, you can release these animals after they’ve been caught. Release them 5-10 miles from your home.

Note: Before trapping raccoons, check to see if this is legal in your area. 

Conclusion 

In conclusion, yes raccoons do eat pears, pears are a sweet delicious, and juicy fruit that raccoons love. This food is also easy to pick in your garden making it even more attractive to the animal.

If you want to keep raccoons away from your pear trees you can use citrus or ammonia-soaked rags around the tree, use bird netting on the trees, or trap and release the animal 

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 lettuce?, Do raccoons eat pumpkins?, Do raccoons eat pine cones?