East Brunswick, NJ Pest Control Contractor & Exterminators

This homeowner in East Brunswick, NJ called our office for a possible termite issue in her bathroom. As we were about to inspect the bathroom, we discovered something very interesting in the living room - a termite mud tube coming from the ceiling! Although we didn't find any signs of a termite infestation in the bathroom, we went up into the attic and found a MASSIVE infestation! With the owner's permission, we began our treatment!

First, we drilled into a few of the wooden beams in the attic and the floors and injected a foaming termiticide. Afterward, we injected a liquid version of the termiticide around the entire foundation of the home. Both versions of the termiticide binds to the areas that are treated and creates a protective zone that is undetectable to the termites. As the termites go about their business and come in contact with the termiticide, they'll bring it back to their colony. As they transfer this treatment throughout their nest it'll spread like a virus. In short amount of time, the termites will be exterminated!

We were sent out to a home in East Brunswick, NJ, to treat a yellow jackets nest that was located in the shed. The homeowner had mentioned that the nest was big, but when we took a look at it, it was HUGE! The nest was so large that the yellow jacket had practically taken over the shed!

For treatment, we applied a knockdown aerosol and a knockdown liquid application to the yellow jackets nest. Both of these treatments will quickly exterminate the yellow jackets. A few moments later, we removed the nest, disposed of it, cleaned the area, and then treated the area with a liquid residual application. This will eliminate any yellow jackets that return to this area as well as prevent them from building another nest. 

A new commercial client in East Brunswick, NJ recently called our office after noticing a large number of bees hovering around the wooden sign in the front of their store. So we were sent out to inspect and treat. 

When we arrived to inspect the area where the bees were swarming, we immediately identified them as carpenter bees. Carpenter bees are solitary, wood-destroying pests but they don’t eat wood like termites do. They can be intimidating just by their size but are typically harmless, just not to your home! Carpenter bees can cause significant property damage, as the female bees drill perfectly circular ½-inch diameter holes into fascia boards, porches, decks, siding, sheds, and other wooden structures. While the female creates a tunnel to nest, the male acts as a sentry protecting the female and nest. Those are the ones that dive bomb at you, but can't really do anything since they have no stinger. The females can sting but only does so if threatened.

For treatment, we injected a residual dusting product and a residual aerosol application into each gallery. Both of these treatments rapidly exterminates the carpenter bees and leaves behind a residual that will eliminate any eggs inside their gallery as well as any returning carpenter bees.

With the possible exception of bed bugs, there is no other pest that sends homeowners into a panic quite like cockroaches. Roaches are associated with filth and disease, and rightly so. Roaches can contaminate countertops, dishes, and any other surface in your kitchen that comes into contact with food.  Roach waste and saliva contains bacteria and other pathogens that can cause serious food poisoning and even Staph infections.

This homeowner in East Brunswick, NJ, saw two cockroaches in her kitchen — and that was more than enough incentive to contact Cowleys. There are never just one or two roaches in your home. If you have even a single roach sighting, it’s reasonable to assume there are others. You often don’t see them because roaches are nocturnal and forage for food at night. They are light-sensitive, so when you turn on the kitchen lights, they will quickly scamper off into their hiding spots. In kitchens, they seek out dark, moist areas. We often find them behind stoves and refrigerators (especially inside refrigerator motors), underneath sinks, and even inside drains. 

Upon arrival, at first blush, the kitchen superficially looked quite clean. There was no food debris on the floor or countertops. With roach infestations, however, you have to dig deeper and go beyond the visible surfaces. I pulled out the refrigerator where I found quite a bit of food debris and a treasure trove of dog food. Apparently, the homeowner recently added a new puppy to her household, and he was a messy eater, scattering food everywhere. I then pulled out the stove and found more of the same — old food debris and dog food — as well as cooking grease on the back of the stove that had dripped all the way down to the floor, which had grease all over it. While we don’t think of grease as food, roaches will thrive on it. Finally, I looked under the dishwasher, and it too was dirty underneath. This kitchen offered roaches multiple significant food sources even though anyone who stepped into it would say it was clean. 

Before treatment, I cleaned out these hidden areas collecting food. Homeowners should periodically access these areas to ensure that they are kept clean. Roaches love dry pet food, and leaving out pet food can become “pest” food. I suggested that she leave out the food for limited periods of time in a place where the kibble would not roll underneath the appliances. After thoroughly cleaning these roach harborage areas, I applied a treatment that will kill the roaches and their eggs. As long as the kitchen stays clean of food debris, this roach infestation will resolve itself shortly. 

I was sent to perform a routine service call for one of our commercial accounts, a large office building complex in East Brunswick, NJ. While inspecting an electrical/telecom closet, I saw that one of our insect monitor glue boards had captured several pavement ant reproductives. We use glue boards as our eyes to help us gauge the level and type of insect activity between our routine visits to inspect and provide preventative treatments. 

Reproductives are winged ants (swarmers) that come out of the nest to mate. Often, people are surprised to learn that some ants have wings and can fly. Ants crawling around are bad enough, but flying ants seem a whole lot worse. Flying ants, also called alates, are the fertile males and females. They have one sole purpose in their lives: To reproduce and start a new colony. Ants will swarm when the temperature, humidity, and wind conditions are just right. 

Swarming ants look markedly different than your run-of-the-mill worker ants. Notice their fairly large size, especially compared to tiny pavement ants. To the untrained eye, these ants could easily be mistaken for carpenter ants or, even worse, as termite swarmers. Termites are social insects just like ants and breed the same way, sending winged fertile insects out of the nest to mate and start a new colony. A licensed pest control technician can distinguish between ant and termite reproductives, and can also identify the correct ant species. This is important because you need to know the insect that you are dealing with, especially if its termites, in order to decide the correct treatment plan.

Ant swarmers enter structures through very small cracks and gaps in a building’s foundation, especially concrete slabs. Once inside, they will make their way through the building to search for a place to start a new colony. These ants likely entered this little upstairs room through a pipe chase (the enclosed space used to house and conceal pipe runs). 

Ants require a source of water to survive. These particular unlucky swarmers found themselves inside a closet area with no source of water, so they perished on their own long before my arrival. The good news is that these were harmless pavement ants and were not property-destroying wood-eating termites or even wood-boring carpenter ants. While pavement ants will commonly invade buildings to forage for food, they do not present any risk to people and do not cause property damage. 

Of course, any ant infestation, no matter the species, is a major nuisance. With an ant infestation, we’ll inspect the building foundation and exterior perimeter to locate the ant trails, trace the trails to the nest, and treat the area to eliminate the queen and the rest of the colony.