How to Get Raccoons and Moles Out of Your Yard Safely

What’s the best way to get raccoons and moles out of your yard safely? Let the dog help.

Raccoons

One morning while letting my dog Benu out for his morning constitutional, I noticed something very wrong with my lawn.

Approximately a 9 foot long section of grass that bordered one of my gardens had been rolled back in little 2-foot sections. What the heck was going on while I was sleeping? I rolled them back into place and went into the house.

The next morning same thing – my lawn had been peeled! After some quick research online I came to the conclusion that I was dealing with (adorable but pesky) raccoons! As it turns out, they are known to peel lawns looking for grubs and mine of course was full of tasty morsels!

For the next several days I tried many of the “natural” ways that I’d found online to repel raccoons including cayenne pepper sprinkled on the grass but to no avail. The little varmints came back every night and ripped the lawn back even further.

I don’t like traps and I certainly wasn’t going to call animal control. I didn’t mind if they hung out in my yard just don’t rip up my lawn!

I looked at Benu and he at me and we pondered… “What do raccoons do a lot of, and what do they hate?” They love to wash their food and grubby little lawn peeling paws constantly.

What would gross them out sufficiently to make them leave? Benu sniffed his butt, clearly bored – or was he? I like to think that he was trying to communicate with me – yes, I’ll go with that.

At that moment I dawned on me to try a radical new approach, so Benu and I got to work.  

I got the shovel and he followed me around while I picked up as much dog poop as I could find. Seeing how Benu was a 107lb Weimaraner, he could lay down some big piles in a couple of moves so it didn’t take much work to find a sufficient quantity for our “experiment”.

Then, much like frosting a layer cake I smeared it across the bare ground under where the grass had previously been so as to cover as much footage as possible and rolled the lawn back over the top of it.

The next morning we went out to see how our little plan worked. There were only a couple of sections partially peeled back. Yay – progress!

Just to be thorough we reapplied this horror-derve (sorry) every morning for the next 3 mornings. After that, they didn’t come back – my backyard was no longer a good restaurant. (Well… they might have been out there but they didn’t peel my lawn).

We had succeeded! Benu wagged his tail – he was happy to be of assistance.

Moles

Benu was diving at the ground in the backyard like a fox pounces the snow when he’s chasing a mouse. What had he found now?

I headed out to the backyard to see what was so fascinating only to find several freshly dug holes scattered throughout the yard – a tunnel system had been setup. For some reason moles had infiltrated my yard – that’s just great.

At first I just tried sticking the garden hose down one of the holes (ala Bill Murray in Caddy Shack) and turned the water on. I figured if the moles thought that they had built in a flood zone maybe they’d take their construction site to the neighbor’s yard.

But noooo…

Taking a tip from my previous experience with the raccoons I wondered if the same solution would work here. Mr. Dog and I got to work immediately.

Out came the shovel and we were back on pooh patrol. I was able to collect enough doggy donations to pack 3 of the holes.  Then I threw some dirt on top of each and patted it down. (I put the dirt on top to keep the dog from tracking it into the house in case he stepped in it.) I had to wait until after dinner to finish filling the other holes if you know what I mean.

What happened next? Yes you guessed it, they left. Every time a new hole opened up I took that day’s dog findings and packed the hole with it.

The moles finally gave up on my yard and left. I’m not sure where they went – perhaps the neighbor’s house – all I know is they were gone!

Once again, Benu wagged his tail, and if I had one I would have wagged it too.