Cowleys Pest Services Before & After Photos

Cowleys handles all of the pest control needs of a community of homes in northern Howell, NJ. Recently, I was contacted by the property manager and asked to inspect and treat a resident’s home for ants, and did so. Whenever I am at a residence, I always perform an exterior perimeter inspection for pest activity. Often, we uncover a pest infestation that the homeowner had no idea was lurking right outside their door! 

Here, I came across an active bald-faced hornets nest. The homeowner was shocked that he missed their activity. These particular wasps are close relatives of yellow jackets and they are just as nasty and aggressive, singing anyone or anything that comes into the “danger zone” around their nest. These wasps, unlike bees, can sting repeatedly, so a swarm of them can pose quite a dangerous situation.

Bald-faced hornets often build their paper-like nests of chewed wood mixed with their saliva in shrubs, trees, and sheds, usually 3 to 4 feet off the ground. They also will attach their nests right onto homes. Here, the wasps built their nest in the overhang between the soffit and gutter. In late summer, insect activity is at a peak since they have been active for quite awhile and you’ll start seeing some large, mature colonies with potentially hundreds of workers. 

During the day, these nests are exceptionally active with workers hovering about the nest, flying in and out. It’s pretty much impossible to sneak up on them, so treating these nests must be done carefully. I did not want to take any chances and put on my protective bee suit. First, I sprayed the opening of the nest with a foam that kills the wasps almost instantly. It is important to quickly knock down the population as fast as you can once you rile them up. I waited a few minutes for the product to work. After I saw no more activity, I removed and bagged the nest, taking it with me off the property. It is important to remove all remnants of activity so that other insects are not attracted to the same area. 

The homeowner was thankful that I located and treated this wasp infestation before anyone was stung.

A Forked River homeowner wanted to improve his crawl space with a better alternative than traditional vapor barriers. For better or worse, crawl spaces are a chronic problem for homeowners when it comes to water, moisture, and mold issues. Many homeowners in New Jersey, especially those from the Jersey Shore who live near large bodies of water, are often faced with crawl space issues. This Forked River homeowner, like many homeowners who live in towns near the Barnegat Bay, was no exception.

For this homeowner, we installed a full “CleanSpace” Encapsulation System. “Cleanspacing” transforms chronically wet, damp crawl spaces into clean, dry areas that keeps away water and moisture.

Recently, I was sent to a home in Millstone Township, NJ for a periodic inspection and service visit that’s included in our residential home protection plans. These plans are valuable to homeowners because we often uncover pest problems that are overlooked by homeowners, especially outdoor infestations and infestations in their early stages. 

During my inspection, I observed a hornet just starting to make a nest on an overhang of the front door. Hornets are highly territorial insects and a nest in any high pedestrian traffic area is a problem. If this nest was not removed, residents and guests of this home could easily be perceived as a threat to the nest and suffer the consequences. Hornets are a formidable threat since they often attack as a swarm. Their venom is especially painful because it contains high levels of acetylcholine, a chemical that stimulates our pain receptors. Also, a single hornet is able to sting multiple times because, unlike bees, its stinger remains intact and does not become lodged in the victim. Since hornets are large insects, they carry a good supply of venom, and release more venom per sting than any other stinging insect. Suffice it to say, I was glad that I was able to locate and treat this nest while it was still in its beginning stages of being formed. By removing this nest now, this household avoided a serious stinging insect threat. 

Fortunately, since the nest was just starting to be formed it did not pose much of a threat to remove it. And that was just fine with me! First, I sprayed the nest with an aerosol foam to knock down any hornets in the nest. Once I saw that there was no more live activity, I safely removed the nest, bagged it, and carried it with me off the property. The homeowner was quite appreciative that I caught this problem early on before the hornets had a chance to form a mature nest. 

I was sent to a home in Cliffwood, NJ when the homeowner contacted Cowleys after finding a wasp nest above a window in a seldom used room. 

Upon arrival, I went to the room where there was a wasp nest. Based on the shape and construction of the nest, i immediately recognized it as a mud dauber nest. Mud daubers are solitary wasps that, unlike social wasps like yellow jackets and baldfaced hornets, do not live in colonies with a queen and hundreds of specialized workers. Instead, each female breeds and tends to her own. For the most part, solitary wasps like mud daubers are not territorial with regard to their nests. They  are not aggressive, and they seldom sting people. 

These wasps also known as dirt daubers or mud wasps, and for good reason. The female constructs small nests by carrying little mud balls to the nest site. She uses the nests to keep her eggs warm. The nests are built as cylindrical tubes that look like a pipe organ (the most common species in New Jersey is known as the organ pipe mud dauber).

I removed the active nest that already had several eggs and wasps in various stages in their life cycle. Homeowners can control mud dauber populations in their home by controlling spider populations since they live, for the most part, on a steady diet of spiders. By sealing cracks where spiders can live and regularly removing spider webs, you should not have a problem with mud daubers. However, if you do start seeing these strange little mud nests around your home, call a pest control technician to remove them. While these guys are not actively looking to sting, if you start trying to scrape away their nests as a weekend DIY project without the right equipment and products, you’re asking for trouble. 

These homeowners in Carteret, NJ found themselves with a raccoon infestation in their attic. Our wildlife technicians quickly trapped and relocated the trespassing animals. Unfortunately, as often happens, the attic insulation was contaminated and destroyed. Raccoons, with their razor-sharp claws, will shred through the insulation and use it as nesting material. Also, they deposit their wastes and urine all over it. Once this happens, the saturated insulation is not salvageable.  There is no choice but to remove and replace it with new insulation.

A Cowleys installation crew arrived to make the attic as good as new. Our goal was to remove any traces that the attic was once a home to wildlife. After removing the contaminated insulation, we sanitized and deodorized the entire attic to remove any and all “evidence” that there once was a raccoon infestation, including the pungent smells left behind. After a wildlife infestation, it is critical to have the attic thoroughly cleaned — not only to remove dangerous pathogens but also to remove any remnants of an infestation, which can be an attractant for other raccoons and wildlife to follow. Wildlife cleaning and sanitation is not a DIY weekend project. This stuff is dangerous! When droppings are disturbed, airborne waste particles are released into the air that can be breathed in and cause serious, chronic respiratory infections. Animals droppings in an enclosed area are a serious bio-hazard. This waste should only be removed by someone who is trained in using proper protective equipment.

After the cleaning and sanitation, we installed our blown-in cellulose insulation. This insulation has excellent thermal properties and, because it is blown-in rather than cut to size like fiberglass batts, all areas of the attic, down to the smallest nooks and crannies, are insulated. This insulation will pay for itself over time with reduced heating and cooling bills. 

The installation crew was especially proud of this project. We successfully transformed an attic that was destroyed by invading wildlife into a clean, beautiful, functional space that will improve the home’s energy efficiency.