Do Raccoons Swim in Water

The answer to the question, do raccoons swim in water, is definitely yes. Do they swim in backyard pools? Do they defecate on the steps or wash their food in your pool. The answer is yes to both questions. We have seen them swimming on our pool. We have seen the results of them washing grubs on the steps of our pool and we have seen poop left on the steps of our pool. It is all pretty gross and turns you off in terms of ever swimming in the pool again. That’s whey you need to discourage them and also apply lots of chlorine.

In fact my family and friends were sitting in the backyard one sunny afternoon having a few drinks when a raccoon came from behind our hedge. He stopped and looked at us and I guess decided that we were no danger to him. He slowly walked over to the steps and took a drink of water before heading back into the hedge.

We were all so shocked that we did not do anything at the time. Probably a good thing since they can be quite vicious if attacked.  Now the question for us was, what could we do about this problem and how to stop them from using our pool to wash their food.

Do Raccoons Swim in Water – Prevention

If there are raccoons living in your area there are two main reasons. There is a food source and there is shelter. In our case we had both. There were lots of grubs in our lawn which on their own almost destroyed the lawn. The raccoons liked to dig up the grubs, wash them in the pool and then eat them. They dug up our lawn in the process.

We sprayed our lawn and killed all of the grubs so they stopped coming to our yard for a feast. They were still in the area, living in someones attic. Once our neighbors dealt with the problem by using one way trap doors to keep them from entering their attic, they left for other home in the area.

For more information on raccoon deterrents, click here.