Raccoons Tearing Up Sod

04.08.2008 - Here's a common problem that people have with raccoons - the destruction of sod.  If you have your yard re-sodded, watch out for raccoon problems!  Raccoons are very clever, and they have nimble hands.  When yards are sodded, it's common for tasty earthworms and grubs to live right under the sod, on the surface of the soil.  For some reason, raccoons always have a tendency to know that there's food to be had, and they just peel back the surface of the sod like a rug, and eat the tasty morsels underneath.

I was called out to trap a troublesome raccoon that was destroying a yard with an expensive sod job.  Every night it came and rolled back dozens of areas all across the large yard.  The homeowner would attempt to fix it, but the raccoon just rolled it apart again each night.  I came out and set some traps and caught the culprit.  I relocated it far from the capture site, and the problem with the sod stopped.

While I don't deal with many cases of sod, this is apparently a very common problem across the country.  Somehow raccoons just know that sod should be peeled back.

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The raccoon (Procyon lotor), is a unique animal native to North America. It's not closely related to any other animals, with distant relatives such as bears and weasels. Coons are easy to recognize, with a black mask and ringed tail. Raccoons tend to weigh between 10-20 pounds as adults. They are mostly nocturnal, and are omnivores. Racoons average a lifespan of about 5 years in the wild, and have a litter of 3-6 young each spring. They are very strong, excellent climbers, very intelligent, and they are very skilled with their hands. Raccoons have learned to thrive in urban areas, and live in very high densities in cities, where they eat garbage and pet food. They commonly break into homes and attics, where they cause considerable damage, and they also destroy other property, and thus racoons are considered pest animals by many people. Raccoon control and removal, especially from inside homes, is best left to a professional.

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