If you’ve had trouble with raccoons getting in your garbage, tearing up your lawn or even breaking into your house, it’s probably due to the animal’s peak population cycle.

The raccoon population cycle peaks every eight to 10 years, said Lorna Lavender, supervisor of the Ames Animal Shelter and Control, 325 Billy Sunday Road.

And this is their year.

“It is a natural phenomenon,” she said.

Ames animal control has been inundated with hundreds of calls about raccoons from residents. With a large raccoon population, Lavender said disease tends to spread among the animals, resulting in more human concern for safety.

“I think that the people are getting frustrated,” she said.

Lavender said she and other animal shelter staff have removed hundreds of sick and distempered raccoons since March. There haven’t been any reports of a human bite or attack by a raccoon.

“Credit should go to the Ames residents for knowing how to avoid them,” Lavender said.

However, the cyclical process is not the only reason for the raccoon population boom, she said. The bushy-tailed animals are busy trying to put on fat for the winter, and where there is a food source, raccoons can be found.

“There is much more activity among the raccoons and higher incidents of road kill,” she said.

Raccoons also are prevalent now because Ames is in full-blown grub season, Lavender said.

“The raccoons will pull back the sod and snack on the grubs,” she said, and the critters’ destructive tendencies are making many people frustrated.

But Lavender said this is more a result of lawn and garden pest control than animal control.

“We want to be helpful, but we need to decide where the government begins and ends,” she said.

Animal control sends out flyers every year informing Ames residents of how to keep raccoons off property and prevent them from entering buildings.

“Planning ahead is the best way for prevention,” Lavender said.

She said people need to raccoon-proof chimneys and attics and keep branches trimmed because long branches allow the animals to get into trees.

Most of the calls animal control gets from Iowa State students have been complaints about raccoons getting in their garbage, Lavender said.

Katy Pyzyna, senior in communication studies, said they rake through her trash at least once a week.

“Even with a lid on top of the garbage can, they still get at the garbage,” she said.

Pyzyna said she has seen as many as five raccoons at once on her deck.

“I am scared to go out in my backyard at night,” she said.

Pyzyna tries to scare the raccoons away by stomping and clapping whenever she is outside.

Lavender said the best way to raccoon-proof garbage is to have lids that clasp shut or put heavy concrete blocks on lids to keep them closed.

The animals will remain a problem as long as the weather is mild, she said, but as soon as temperatures begin to fall, the raccoon population will follow suit.

“With the cold weather will come relief,” she said.

Lavender said anyone who sees a distempered raccoon, or one that looks like it’s drunk, should contact animal control at 239-5530. Don’t approach the wildlife and don’t set food out for them — it will only attract more, she said.