Raccoons can cause a lot of damage in your garden, never mind what they do to your trash. This article will be your guide on how to keep raccoons from eating tomatoes

You can keep raccoons from eating your tomatoes by using motion sensor lights that shine on the plants at night, using ammonia-soaked rags as a barrier, creating a home-made pepper spray and using it as a barrier, using cages to trap the raccoons and planting garlic or peppermint around the tomatoes to irritate them and prevent them from coming back.

After weeks and even months of spending time and effort in your garden, it can be disappointing to find that raccoons are eating up your tomatoes. You can’t stop raccoons from coming onto your property but you can stop them from eating your tomatoes. So all you tomato growers and garden owners, this article is for you

How to keep raccoons from eating tomatoes? 

One of the ways that you can keep raccoons out of your tomatoes, and off of your property in general, is to secure your trash cans.

You can secure your trash cans by using tight-fitting lids and stretching a rubber bungee cord from one handle, over the lid and to the other handle.

Also, as an added measure, make sure you clean the bins regularly with bleach and water. This will prevent raccoons from coming onto your property in the first place.

Remember to also keep your pet food in the house and secure from raccoons. If they are drawn to your property looking for your pet food they can stumble across your tomatoes and eat them as well

Birdfeeders are also something that can bring raccoons onto your property. To combat this hang birdfeeders somewhere where both raccoons can’t reach and where birds can easily access

Since raccoons usually look for food at night you can use motion sensor flood lights to disturb them as they come onto your property. Set up the lights so that they shine on your tomato garden, this will scare them away from the area

These animals hate the smell of ammonia. To keep them away soak some rags in ammonia and place them around your garden as a barrier, this will keep the raccoons away from your tomatoes.

If you’re not too keen to leave ammonia-soaked rags close to your garden and close to your tomatoes you can you create a raccoon pepper spray. Do this by blending a mix of a hot sauce, fresh peppers and cayenne pepper.

When the spray is ready, apply it along the perimeter of your tomato garden as a barrier, this will keep raccoons at bay.

Another thing that raccoons dislike is loud noises if you don’t mind the noise at night you can leave a radio out in your back garden at night where your tomatoes are this will keep away

If none of these methods keep raccoons away from your tomatoes you can always catch them with a cage and bait. I do not suggest that you kill these creatures because this is not legal in all states.

Using traps is convenient and you can re-locate the raccoons at a later stage. When using traps ensure that you use a trap with a double door design. This is necessary for raccoons because they can get out of most traditional traps.

Are there any plants that repel raccoons? 

If you want to repel raccoons, and simultaneously improve your garden, there a couple of plants that will help repel raccoons. Here are some plants that you can add to your garden to repel these animals.

Peppermint: You can plant this as a barrier around your tomatoes, they will protect against raccoons because raccoons hate the smell of peppermint. This strong odour will irritate their noses. You can also crush some peppermint leaves around your tomatoes to ward off raccoons

Garlic: Not only is garlic a strong scent to humans but it’s also a strong sent to raccoons. It irritates the nose and after eating it, it leaves a bitter aftertaste in their mouth’s. This aftertaste lasts and makes them desensitised to food and scents for a little while. 

Summary 

In summary, you can protect your tomatoes from raccoons by using motion sensor lights that shine on the plants at night, using ammonia-soaked rags as a barrier, creating a home-made pepper spray and using it as a barrier, using cages to trap the raccoons and planting garlic or peppermint around the tomatoes to irritate them and prevent reoccurrence.

You can keep them from coming onto your property by keeping pet food indoors and ensuring that your trashcan lids are properly sealed.

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: why are raccoons hunted, how do raccoons not get sick, why do raccoons eat garbage, why are raccoons fat