On Staten Island, wildlife lives closer to your house than it does almost anywhere else in New York City. The borough has more parkland than any other — over 12,000 acres across about 170 parks — and its houses are mostly detached, with attics, crawl spaces, decks and garages. That combination brings raccoons, squirrels, opossums and skunks right up to the roofline. Clearview Pest Control Inc. provides wildlife removal in Staten Island: we get the animals out, seal the way back in, and clean up after them, working across the island from our Bayonne office just over the Bayonne Bridge.
Call 201-706-7437. We answer calls 24/7.
The Greenbelt runs through the middle of the island, with roughly 2,800 acres of woods, wetlands and trails. Freshkills Park on the west shore, a former landfill being turned into parkland, is almost three times the size of Central Park. Smaller wooded lots, creeks and shoreline strips connect them. Animals live in that green space and move along it into the yards next to it.
The housing is the other half. Staten Island has the highest share of homeowners in the city, and most of those homes are detached, with their own roofs, soffits, vents, chimneys and decks. Every one of those is a possible den. A raccoon needs a gap of three or four inches. A squirrel needs about two.
For a summer checklist, read how to keep wildlife out of Staten Island homes in summer.
We check the attic, the roofline, the chimney and ground level — decks, sheds, stoops and crawl spaces. We use endoscope, thermal and motion cameras when an animal is hidden in a wall or void. We find the active entry, any secondary ones, and whether young are present.
Trapping a mother alone can leave her young to die in the walls. So we check for young first. Raccoons have kits in spring; squirrels have young in late winter and again in late summer. When young are present, we plan the removal so the family leaves together. When they are not, a one-way door over the entry lets the animal out and keeps it out.
Heavy-gauge galvanized mesh at soffits and vents, repaired fascia, secured roof vents, chimney caps, and mesh skirting dug in around decks and sheds against skunks, opossums and groundhogs. This is the step that stops the next animal from using the same gap.
Droppings, latrines and nesting material out, the area disinfected and deodorized, and soiled insulation replaced. Raccoon droppings can carry roundworm, so this is not a job for a shop vac. If an animal has died in a wall or under a floor, we handle the dead animal removal too.
Most wildlife jobs take five to seven days from the first inspection to the final repair. For the full process, see wildlife removal.
Raccoons are a rabies vector species in New York. A cornered raccoon in an attic can bite. One that seems sick, unsteady or unafraid in daylight should be left alone and reported. New York also regulates nuisance wildlife trapping and what may be done with an animal once it is caught. A trap also does nothing about the hole the animal used.
Yes — all of Richmond County, from St. George and the North Shore to Tottenville on the South Shore. See pest control in Staten Island for our other services on the island.
Our Bayonne office is just across the Bayonne Bridge. Call and we will give you the first available window. An animal loose in living space, or one stuck in a chimney or wall, gets priority.
Most animals leave through a one-way door and are simply kept out. When trapping is needed, we follow New York’s rules for nuisance wildlife, and we tell you what will happen before we start.
Don’t seal anything. We check where the young are and plan the removal so the mother takes them out or they are removed together. Sealing a roof with young inside leaves dead animals in the ceiling and a mother tearing at the roofline.
Not through a gap we have sealed. That is why exclusion is part of every job. We also point out trees, stacked wood or open crawl spaces that make the house easy to reach.
Call 201-706-7437. See also our wildlife removal service and wildlife removal in Bayonne.
