Raccoons going in and out of storm drain in Hopewell, NJ
These homeowners in Hopewell, NJ. found themselves with a raccoon infestation on their property. While the raccoons did not make their way inside the home, it is stressful even to see these large animals scavenging around your property. Here, they were crawling in and out of storm drains around because the grates had a gap that was large enough for the raccoons to gain access.
Wildlife has a way of exploiting weaknesses in a structure in order to gain entry. Often, its water-saturated, rotting fascia, soffit boards, or roof shingles. Other times, the weakness is a structural opening like chimneys or storm drains that do not have an adequate protective covering to block access. For this homeowner, I installed six storm grate covers that would keep out raccoons and other larger wildlife from entering the drains. I’m confident that by blocking these gaps, the raccoons will move off the property to find another home.
Unfortunately, we weren't able to get a good before image, so here we show a typical open storm drain.