Cowleys Pest Services Before & After Photos

A residential customer in East Windsor contacted Cowleys because of an on-going issue with skunks. We all know the major problem of skunks: the pungent smell of their spray. Here’s a free wildlife technician tip: If you or your pet are sprayed by a skunk, vinegar or tomato juice will mask the smell until it fades with time.  Another recommended home remedy is mixing a quart of hydrogen peroxide, ¼ cup of baking soda, and 2 tablespoons of dish detergent. It’s best to discard your clothes — getting out the skunk smell out of your clothing is more trouble than what it’s worth, and you don’t want to go out on the town smelling like “Pepe Le Pew.” 

Besides their spray, skunks can also destroy lawns. Using their long front claws to dig in soil, they are expert insect hunters.  For homeowners, seeing chunks of grass peeled back is a disturbing sight. Lawns that have a heavy infestation of grubs (beetle larvae) often wind up with a skunk problem. Skunks will dig up lawns to go after the grubs. Fortunately, here, there was not any lawn damage. During the winter, while skunks don’t actually hibernate, the stay in their dens and become inactive, eating little and sleeping a lot. 

When I arrived at her home, the homeowner was quite upset, and rightfully so. She explained that she how has had a skunk problem for a while. Another nuisance wildlife company had come out there, but the technician failed to trap a single skunk. Based on her description, they set the wrong traps and used the wrong bait. Peanut butter is not the universal bait to trap any type of nuisance wildlife. For trapping wildlife, a good wildlife tech will try to bait traps with whatever the target animals are used to feeding on at that location. Wildlife is surprisingly smart and cautious, and are wary of new food sources in an area.

After listening to the homeowner’s frustrating saga that had gone on for far too long, I came up with the best solution. Just because skunks have sprayed does not mean that that they are hanging around. In fact, skunks hate that smell just as mush as we do. A skunk will never spray another skunk, especially a member of his own family. Rather than setting traps and waiting, I wanted to give this customer a faster solution, especially since the skunks were localized to a specific area under her deck. My plan was to exclude skunks and other wildlife from entering under her entire deck by installing heavy-gauge metal mesh behind a beautiful white lattice that would give the deck a better appearance. I would also installed a temporary one-way exclusion that would allow the animals to get out, but prevent them from returning. Once I knew there was no more wildlife under the deck, I’d then install the final piece of fencing. The homeowner was pleased that, with this critter control barrier in place, she would not have any more unwanted visitors under her deck again.

Recently, we went out on a service call for a homeowner in Plainsboro Township, NJ who contacted Cowleys for a groundhog issue. As the homeowner was fixing a post in his deck, a groundhog peaked his head out! Needless to say, this scared the daylights out of the homeowner. Groundhogs are outdoor rodents that build their homes underground. An adult groundhog is an herbivore with an immense appetite, eating 1-1 ½ pounds of vegetation a day. As a groundhog prepares for hibernation by consuming even more food, there may be considerable damage to a home.

As we began inspecting the exterior of the home, we found several burrows around the deck area. A groundhog burrow is a marvel of animal engineering. These underground homes run two to four feet beneath the surface and range from eight feet to more than 60 feet long, with multiple exits and rooms. A burrow is usually equipped with two or three entrances, each of which is 10”-12” wide and marked by excavated soil. Groundhogs even build separate chambers in their burrows to serve as bathrooms!

To eliminate the problem, we dug 10 inches down and 10 inches out from the deck and installed hardware cloth around the perimeter. After installing the hardware cloth, we then placed lattice over it. This will to make it aesthetically pleasing to look at and adds an extra level of reinforcement to keep animals away. Over by the main access point, we placed a one-way exclusion device to allow any groundhogs that may be hiding under the deck to come out. A one-way exclusion device is a device that allows a critter to safely exit the harborage spot and prevent them from getting back in. Finally, we backfilled over top hardware cloth and up to the bottom of the lattice. We scheduled a follow-up inspection to monitor the harborage areas and, once the home is free of groundhogs, seal up the final piece of lattice and hardware cloth.

As this elderly homeowner in South Bound Brook, NJ was walking around the exterior of his home, he discovered a HUGE bald-faced hornets nest in one the bushes! He ran inside and called Cowleys for help!

We arrived, equipped our protective bee suit, and within minutes located the bald-faced hornets nest (it was hard to miss)! When a hornets nest gets that big, it means there are hundreds of short-tempered insects inside waiting to sting anything that comes close to their nest! For treatment, we injected a knockdown aerosol application directly into the opening of the nest. A few moments later, we treated the nest with a knockdown liquid product. Both treatments rapidly exterminate the bald-faced hornets. Once they were eliminated we removed the nest and the branch it was attached to and disposed of them properly.  

We were sent out on a service call to a business owner in Warren, NJ who was suffering from a heavy fruit fly infestation in his kitchen. As we inspected, we noticed that the fruit flies were hovering near several floor drains. We took a closer look and discovered that the floor drains were full of dirty, discarded food and liquid residue. 

First, we treated the infestation areas with a fly bait to control the adult fruit flies. Next, we applied a liquid application in all the floor drains and then scrubbed them out with our heavy-duty scrubber. The liquid application removes the bad bacteria in the drain, which eliminates the fruit fly's breeding habitat. Lastly, we applied a bio-foam solution that removes the organic build-up, odors, and scum in the drain. Once we finished, we spoke to the owner and mentioned a few, simple sanitation protocols to prevent future fruit fly or other pest issues. 

This Dayton, NJ homeowner had a colony, or cloud, of bats in her attic, leaving a toxic mess of guano and urine throughout. The first part of the job was to remove the insulation that was destroyed by bat guano and urine. After the removal, we vacuumed, sanitized, and deodorized the entire attic until all remnants of a bat infestation were gone. 

For this attic, we blew in 10" of fresh TruSoft blown-in cellulose insulation. TruSoft blown-in cellulose insulation is a safe, non-toxic type of insulation that is 85% composed of recycled material. This method of “blown-in” or “open blow” cellulose is the process of loosely spraying the material into the attic or wall cavities to create a dense, insulated space to slow air flow. Our cellulose insulation is also non-flammable as well as rodent and mold/mildew resistant, making it an all-around benefit to the attic!