How To Keep Raccoons From Digging Up Plants

If you’ve found your garden looking like a miniature excavation site, you’re likely dealing with raccoons. Learning how to keep raccoons from digging up plants is a common challenge for gardeners, but there are many simple and effective ways to protect your hard work. These clever creatures are after grubs, worms, or just a soft place to dig, but their nightly raids can destroy your flower beds and vegetable patches overnight.

Don’t worry, though. You don’t need expensive equipment or harmful chemicals. With a mix of understanding, persistence, and some clever tricks, you can convince these masked bandits to dine elsewhere. Let’s look at why they’re in your garden and what you can do about it.

This is your core strategy guide. The methods below range from quick fixes to longer-term solutions. Often, using a combination of two or three tactics works best, as raccoons are smart and can get used to a single deterrent if it doesn’t pose a real threat.

Why Raccoons Dig in Your Garden

Before we fight them, it helps to understand them. Raccoons aren’t digging just to annoy you. They have specific goals, and knowing these can help you choose the right solution.

Hunting for Grubs: This is the number one reason. A lawn or garden bed full of juicy Japanese beetle or other grubs is an all-you-can-eat buffet for a raccoon. Their digging is often methodical, peeling back chunks of sod or soil.
Searching for Earthworms: After a rain, the soil is soft and earthworms come to the surface. Raccoons will happily dig up large areas to find these wriggly snacks.
Planting Bulbs or Seeds: Unfortunately, some of our planting actions attract them. They can smell newly planted bulbs like tulips or crocus, and will dig them up, sometimes eating them.
Creating a Latrine: Raccoons often pick a spot and return to it repeatedly to leave their droppings. This is unsanitary and can damage plants in that area.
General Foraging: They might be checking if anything edible, like fallen fruit or vegetables, is buried just under the surface.

Immediate Action: Quick Fixes for Tonight

If you need results fast to stop ongoing damage, try these methods immediately. They are easy to set up and can provide a temporary shield while you work on longer-term strategies.

Motion-Activated Sprinklers: These are incredibly effective. The sudden burst of water startles the raccoon and feels like a predator attack. Place it near the affected area at dusk. The scare is harmless but very persuasive.
Bright Lights or Flashing Lights: Raccoons prefer to work under cover of darkness. Setting up a bright security light or even a strobe light pointed at the garden can deter them. Solar-powered LED lights are a great option.
Loud Noises: A battery-operated radio left on a talk radio station overnight can make the area feel too “human” and risky for them. The unpredictable human voices are a strong deterrent.
Physical Barriers (Temporary): Lay down chicken wire or hardware cloth directly on the soil around your plants. Raccoons hate the feel of the wire on their sensitive paws. You can stake it down lightly or cover it with a thin layer of mulch.

Physical Barriers: The Most Reliable Long-Term Solution

Nothing beats a good fence. While raccoons are excellent climbers, they are not great diggers when faced with a proper barrier. Here’s how to build one that works.

Choose the Right Material: Use hardware cloth (a stiff wire mesh), not chicken wire, which they can sometimes bend. The openings should be 1 inch or smaller.
Build a Fence: Create a fence around your prized garden bed that is at least 3 feet tall.
Bury the Bottom: This is the critical step. Bury the bottom 6-8 inches of the fencing outward, away from the garden, in an “L” shape. This creates an underground apron that they won’t bother to dig under.
Top it Off: If they are climbing over, add a loose, floppy top to the fence. A 1-foot section of fencing that isn’t supported will flop back under their weight, preventing them from getting a grip.

For individual plants or pots, consider making wire cages or cloches that can be placed over them at night. It’s a bit of work, but it’s 100% effective.

Natural Repellents and Scents They Hate

Raccoons have a powerful sense of smell, which you can use against them. These repellents need to be reapplied frequently, especially after rain or watering.

Cayenne Pepper or Hot Sauce Spray: Mix a tablespoon of cayenne pepper or a few drops of hot sauce with a liter of water and a few drops of dish soap (to help it stick). Spray it generously on and around your plants. Reapply every few days.
Garlic and Onion Spray: Boil chopped garlic and onion in water, let it cool, strain, and spray. The strong odor is a good deterrent.
Predator Urine: You can buy granules or liquid coyote or fox urine from garden centers. Sprinkle it around the perimeter of your garden. It signals that a predator is nearby.
Soap Bars: Some gardeners have success with strongly scented soap bars like Irish Spring. Drill a hole, run a string through it, and hang it from stakes around the garden. The smell can be off-putting to raccoons.
Used Cat Litter: If you have a cat, sprinkle some used litter around the edges. The scent of a feline can make raccoons wary. Be cautious if you have dogs that might roll in it.

Remember, you’ll need to rotate these scents every so often so the raccoons don’t realize they’re harmless.

Remove the Attractants: Make Your Garden Less Interesting

This is about changing the environment so raccoons have no reason to visit in the first place. It’s a fundamental step that often gets overlooked.

Eliminate Grubs: Treat your lawn and garden with beneficial nematodes or milky spore powder. These natural solutions kill grubs over time, removing the raccoon’s primary food source. This is a long-term game-changer.
Secure Trash and Compost: Use locking lids on trash cans. For compost, avoid adding meat, dairy, or oily foods, and consider using a fully enclosed compost bin.
Clean Up Fallen Fruit and Bird Seed: Regularly pick up fruit from under trees. Use raccoon-proof bird feeders or stop feeding birds for a while if the problem is severe.
Remove Water Sources: Empty bird baths, pet water dishes, and any standing containers at night. Raccoons need water, and denying it can encourage them to move on.

Lights, Sounds, and Motion Tactics

Raccoons are neophobic—they fear new things. By changing up your deterrents, you keep them guessing and uncomfortable.

Visual Deterrents

Things that move or look like eyes can scare them. Try pinwheels, old CDs hung on string to flash in the sun and wind, or even plastic owl or coyote decoys. Move these decoys every couple of days so the raccoons don’t learn they’re fake.

Sound Deterrents

Ultrasonic repellents emit a high-frequency sound that is annoying to raccoons but inaudible to most humans. Their effectiveness varies, but they can work in small areas. Again, moving them helps.

Wind chimes or aluminum pie plates clanging together can also create enough random noise to be a nuisance. The key is unpredictability—raccoons are smart enough to ignore a constant, unchanging sound.

For Persistent Problems: Advanced Strategies

If you’ve tried everything and they still come, these next-level ideas might do the trick.

Electric Fencing: A single strand of electric wire about 6 inches off the ground around the garden is a very effective teacher. The mild shock is memorable and teaches them to avoid the area entirely.
Automatic Lights with Sensors: Combine light with motion. A porch light that suddenly floods the garden can send a raccoon running.
Dog Patrol: The presence of a dog is one of the best deterrents. Even the scent of a dog in the yard can make raccoons think twice. Letting your dog out last thing at night can disrupt their routine.

One thing to avoid is trying to trap and relocate raccoons yourself. It’s often illegal without a permit, stressful for the animal, and simply moves the problem to someone else’s neighborhood. It also creates a vacancy that a new raccoon will quickly fill.

Seasonal Tips and Plant Choices

Your strategy might change with the seasons. Spring is prime digging time for grubs and bulbs. Fall is when they’re fattening up for winter and may be more bold.

Consider planting things raccoons tend to avoid. They generally dislike plants with strong smells or textures. These include:

Herbs: Mint, garlic, chives, rosemary
Flowers: Marigolds, geraniums, daffodils (which are also toxic to them)
Vegetables: Hot peppers, cucumbers, squash (the prickly vines can deter them)

While not a guarantee, interplanting these among your more vulnerable plants can create a less appealing environment.

FAQ: Your Raccoon Deterrent Questions Answered

What is the number one way to stop raccoons from digging?
The most effective single method is eliminating their food source, specifically grubs in your lawn. Treating for grubs removes the main reason they dig. Combining this with a motion-activated sprinkler covers both cause and effect.

Do coffee grounds repel raccoons?
Some gardeners swear by used coffee grounds as a repellent. The strong smell may mask the scent of grubs or other attractants. While not scientifically proven, it’s a harmless method to try. Sprinkle them liberally around your plants.

Will mothballs keep raccoons away?
We do not recommend using mothballs. They are a pesticide meant for use in airtight containers, not outdoors. They can contaminate soil and water, and are toxic to children, pets, and wildlife. There are much safer options available.

How do I keep raccoons out of my potted plants?
Potted plants are easy targets. Cover the soil surface with a layer of large, rough stones or lava rock. You can also cut a circle of hardware cloth to fit snugly inside the pot, just under the mulch, allowing space for the plant stem. Spraying a cayenne pepper mix on the pot and soil can also help.

Do ultrasonic pest repellers work on raccoons?
They can work in the short term, but raccoons are adaptable. They may get used to the sound if they realize nothing bad happens. For best results, use it in combination with other methods like lights or scent repellents, and move the device regularly.

Is it raccoons or skunks digging up my lawn?
Raccoon digs are often larger and look like someone took a small trowel and peeled back the sod. Skunk digs are usually smaller, cone-shaped holes as they dig for individual grubs. Skunks also leave a distinct odor, while raccoon damage is usually odorless.

Protecting your garden from raccoons takes patience and a layered approach. Start by removing what attracts them, then block their access, and finally, use deterrents to annoy them into leaving. Be consistent and don’t give up after one night. These clever animals are testing your resolve, but with these simple and effective methods, you can win the battle and enjoy your beautiful, undisturbed garden once again.