Suburban Raccoons

When animals are digging up your lawn at night, it can be very frustrating. Most homeowners have no idea why this happens or what to do about it. Like most things in life, there is a logical explanation about why something happens. Once you know why a solution can easily be found. As to the reason animals such as skunks and raccoons are digging up your lawn, they are simply looking for food. The food they are looking for white grubs that are fat and juicy and live off the roots of your lawn. They remain underground, just below the surface and they eat the roots which in turn will weaken the grass. If the raccoons do not ruin the lawn, the grubs will over time, particularly in dry hot periods.

In hot weather, your lawn may even turn prematurely brown, because the roots have been damaged by the grubs. In addition, since there are no roots or a very small amount of root for the lawn, it is easy to dig up the lawn and roll it back so the animals can get at the grubs. You can easily check to see if there are grubs by simply peeling back the sod and digging around a little bit to expose them.

Animals Digging up Lawn at Night – Solutions

The best way to get rid of the animals is to eliminate any food source in the vicinity of your home. In addition to the grubs get rid of any food sources such as your garbage, berries, nuts, etc that might attract animals.

The grubs are a bit more difficult. There are several solutions, but we have found that Spectracide offers the best solution for killing the grubs. Follow the instructions on the bottle. In general, you will need to spray the lawn several times in July and August. The first year will kill a high percentage of the grubs. We suggest that you spray the lawn for at least two years in a row to make sure there are no grubs to feed the local animals such as the skunks and raccoons. Your lawn will be much more healthy as a result.

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