Cowleys Pest Services Before & After Photos

A new customer in Beachwood, NJ, called Little Rascals after spotting an opossum walking across her yard and going underneath her shed! In order to safely retrieve the opossum, we installed a positive set and then installed Dig Defense® around the entire shed.

A positive set is comprised of a nose cone that is attached to a two-gaited, heavy-duty device. The nose cone will safely guide the opossum into the device. It's called a positive set, because we are positive that the opossum will enter the device. Dig Defense® is a below-ground fence system that is 15 inches deep, 4 feet across, and protects structures against opossums, skunks, groundhogs, and other nuisance wildlife!

In a short amount of time, we successfully retrieved the opossum and relocated it to a humane environment. We then removed our device, filled in the burrow, and installed another portion of Dig Defense®.

This homeowner in Beachwood, NJ, had a small attic above his bedroom and, after living in the home for over 50 years, decided it was time to add new, better quality insulation to it. So he contacted Attic Systems by Cowleys and we were sent out. 

When we arrived, we realized that the attic hasn't been touched in long time, as there was a buildup of dust and the fiberglass insulation had been deteriorated to the point that it was no longer doing its job! With the owners permission, we carefully removed all the deteriorated insulation, disposed of it, and then disinfected the attic. Once we were finished, we replaced all the old insulation with ComfortTherm® insulation. ComfortTherm® insulation provides excellent temperature and noise control, and comes with a vapor-retarder for use in hot, humid climates. Now the homeowner has a clean, reinsulated attic space.

These nuisance birds were nesting in this homeowners gable vent. Because the spaces in the gable vent were quite large, the birds just squeezed right in between the spaces and started nesting there. First, we carefully removed all the nesting debris out of the attic, which weighed over 20 lbs! Afterward, we then disinfected the area, and the entire attic, with a solution that targets bird mites. Bird mites are parasites that feed on the blood of birds. When birds leave their nests, the mites are left behind without a suitable host for their next blood meal. They will make their way into a home, and once inside they will take over, climbing all over your walls, ceilings, and beddings. To make matters worse, bird mites are tiny and semi-transparent, so they are extremely difficult to detect.  Bird mites are the main reason why extreme care is needed when removing a nest. The last thing you want to do is disrupt the mites that are crawling in and around the nesting material.

Once that was finished, in order to successfully exclude the birds from the home, we installed Pest-Blok over the gable vent. Pest-Blok doesn't restrict the airflow to the attic, undergoes a silicone-protected polyester coating process that makes it last longer, and guards the home against nuisance birds, bats, and all nuisance wildlife.

The customer in Howell, NJ, was renovating his living room one afternoon. As he removed a portion of the sheetrock, he came upon a large and active yellow jackets nest right behind it! He immediately called Cowleys for help, since he is a Home Protection Plan customer, and we were sent out. 

Yellow jackets are social insects that build their paper-like material nests from chewed cellulose. If the entrance of their nest is approached, they will attack! Their stings are very painful and those who are allergic to their venom could have a severe reaction. After we equipped our protective bee suit, we injected a residual dusting application into the nest.

We then waited a little bit and then injected a knockdown aerosol product. These treatments will exterminate the yellow jackets quickly. Several moments after treating the nest, we removed it and then properly discarded it. Now the homeowner can continue with his renovations without getting stung!

A homeowner in Holmdel, NJ was having issues with carpenter bees infesting the wood fascia boards in his house. Carpenter bees, large, shiny black bees, are destructive wood-boring insects. The female bee burrows into the wood to lay her eggs while the male hovers around nearby to protect the queen from any predators or other males. The tell-tail sign of a carpenter bee infestation is sawdust, commonly known as sass, collecting below the holes where the bees have bored into the wood. As this homeowner found out, besides the drilling damage from carpenter bees, the larvae attract noisy woodpeckers that drill holes along the bee homes to reach and feed on the larvae. Woodpecker activity results in long trenches and holes along the wood. Needless to say, after the cumulative effect of carpenter bee and woodpecker activity, a home can suffer quite a bit of damage. The damage is more than unsightly. The holes can allow water seepage into the wood, weakening it and causing wood rot which it, turn, can lead to other insect and even wildlife infestations. Squirrels and raccoons commonly exploit weaknesses in a home’s structure, especially damaged fascia boards, soffits, or roofing shingles, to gain access inside the attic.

These carpenter bees were persistent. After a few treatments, the bees and the woodpeckers would return. A permanent solution was needed to prevent these re-infestations, and Cowleys home improvement crew was called in. To repair the damage, we removed the damaged wood fascia and replaced it with a high-performance exterior cellular PVC trim. This material won’t rot, cup, split, twist, or warp, and carpenter bees, or woodpeckers for that matter, can’t drill into it. The new fascia looked great and blended in with the house. The homeowner was relieved that the carpenter bee infestation was gone, and he no longer had to listen to noisy woodpeckers chipping away on his home.