Pests We Treat Before & After Photos

We were sent out on a service call for a new Home Protection Plan customer in Howell, NJ to treat for hornets . When we arrived, we inspected the back deck, which is where the owner saw them, and found that the hornets nest was located right above an outlet! For treatment, we injected a knockdown dusting application directly into the nest. This application rapidly eliminates the hornets. A short while later, we removed the nest, disposed of it, and applied a residual application to the area to neutralize any returning hornets and prevent them from building a new nest.

A homeowner in Hazlet contacted Cowleys after finding a mouse infestation in his basement. Once temperatures drop, mice and other overwintering pests try to make their way into our homes to shelter themselves from the harsh winter elements. 

Mice are nocturnal creatures that do their foraging in the dead of night, so they tend to stay out of sight. More often than not, you’ll notice signs of mice activity well before actually seeing one of these scampering pests. If you do see a mouse during the day, it may be a sign of a heavy infestation. The most common sign that you have a mouse problem is their small and dark droppings that they leave behind, often inside cupboard tops or along skirting. While mice and the size of their droppings are small, the quantity of droppings is a whole different story — a single mouse can produce upwards of 70 droppings a day! Mice also leave behind hairs, rub marks along regularly traveled routes, and track footprints in dusty places. Besides their droppings, other signs are smells (the ammonia-like smell of urine and the stench of a dead rotting mouse carcass are particularly pungent), and scratching noises, which often heard at night when they are moving about.  In addition, you may find easy-to-shred nesting materials and track footprints in dusty places.

Whenever I am dispatched to resolve a mouse infestation, after talking to the homeowner to get an idea of where the creatures are nesting and harboring, I first perform a thorough inspection. During the inspection, I meticulously do an inch-by-inch inspection of the interior and exterior perimeter of the home in order to find possible access points. Mice entry points can be easily overlooked and are a challenge to locate — they only need an opening about the size of a dime to squeeze their way inside. My inspection includes checking all of the utility lines and pipes entering the home to ensure sealed tight and that their are no gaps. With this particular job, even after re-tracking my steps at least three times, I could not find a single possible entry point around the foundation. From my early pest control days, I knew that a common access point was the garage door area. I checked the garage and the weather strips and garage door jams were perfectly intact. Finally, I checked around the home’s siding. And bingo - I found a very obvious entry point that would lead the mice into the garage, and from the garage into the basement. 

I sealed the gap in the siding. In the basement’s interior, I placed RTU bait stations that automatically lock once a rodent enters, and placed LP (low profile) bait stations around the exterior of home along with a dozen snap traps. I was confident that this internal-external trapping arrangement would capture most of the mice, if they were still around. After a three day follow-up, I returned to the home. No mouse activity was found other than a deer mouse caught in a snap trap. 

Two weeks later, I followed up once again, and still there was no activity. At this point, there was no longer an active infestation and mice were not gaining access into the home. I told the homeowner to always be on the lookout for mice activity, and if there was a problem, we’d be back to handle it. Mice infestations are not a one visit and your done problem. You often need to set additional traps and re-inspect, so it may take a few visits by the pest control tech to make sure that these pests are out of your home for good.

Recently, I was dispatched to a home in Holmdel, NJ that was having an on-going problem with mice overwintering in the home. As temperatures drop, mice will seek refuge inside out homes to escape the harsh outdoor elements. Unfortunately for this homeowner, as soon as some mice were baited or trapped, another group of rodents would come out of the “woodwork” to take their place. Finally, the homeowners had enough dealing with their mouse issues and contacted Cowleys to determine the source of the problem and stop any further mouse entry into their home.

Upon arrival, I started my inspection of the home to locate any actual or potential mouse entry points. This particular home had a full crawl space and a garage. Mice often gain access through these locations int he home first. Then once inside, they find their way into the wall voids where they have full run throughout the entire home (since they are foraging for food, you’ll often spot them or signs of mouse activity in the kitchen). 

Sure enough, mice were entering through the home’s foundation. I found two crawl space vents that had holes in the screening. The nylon screening had actually disintegrated over time. Vented crawl spaces can cause a host of problems for homeowners, not the least of which are insect and rodent infestations. To seal these access points, I cut two pieces of hardware cloth to cover the holes. To deal with any mice that were still hiding in the crawl space, I set a number of baited traps. With the entry points closed and bait traps set, these homeowners should see an immediate reduction in the number of mouse sitings. 

Recently, homeowners in Hazlet Township, NJ, contacted Cowleys after finding mouse droppings in their oven. Mice usually enter a home through gaps, cracks, or openings around the foundation and enter the basement or crawl space. From there, they travel through wall voids throughout the home, eventually making their way to the kitchen to forage for food. Even the cleanest kitchens can have hidden food debris under and behind kitchen appliances. Mice are attracted to not only food, but also heat sources like ovens, dryers, and motors underneath refrigerators. 

Upon arrival, I started my inspection with the oven since that’s where the droppings were found. Mice are nocturnal and do a good job staying out of sight. Homeowners will usually see signs of a mouse infestation, such as droppings, nesting materials, and hordes of relocated food, well before spotting a live mouse scurrying about. Here, I removed the storage drawer on the bottom of the oven and found even more distinctive mouse pellets. After cleaning around of the base of the oven, I found a good sized hole behind the oven where the electrical wires came up from the crawl space. No doubt, this is how the mice were gaining access to the kitchen. With mice, a good inspection strategy is following pipes and wires. often, there are gaps around them allowing the mice to gain entry into the home and then move about inside the home undetected. I sealed the hole with a chew-proof copper mesh and also placed a RTU (“ready-to-use”) bait station in the area. I also inspected the crawl space and placed other bait stations in strategic locations where there was mouse activity.

I was sent to Holmdel, NJ to help homeowners who were dealing with a mouse infestation in the void above their basement ceiling. After finishing up exercising on their basement treadmill,  the homeowners heard some strange noises above their heads — the scratching and scurrying noises of mice above their heads. Mice prefer to stay away from well-lit areas and stay in out-of-the way places like wall voids and above ceilings where they can come and go and move around the house as they please. When things are quiet, these sounds tend to amplify, and often, homeowners think that they are dealing with a much larger problem like squirrels or even raccoons. Of course, no homeowner should ever think that it’s “just mice.” Mice and their urine and droppings can contaminate food and counter tops. Like any wildlife, they are a health risk to a home’s occupants.

Needless to say, the homeowners were right. Mice had entered their living space from outside. Mice usually enter homes around gaps and cracks in the foundation, and I began my inspection in the basement, first popping out some tiles near where they had heard the unwanted visitors so I could get a better look. There were some mice droppings on to of the ceiling tile. I immediately saw how the rodents were gaining access. There was some daylight coming from a small opening on the outside wall. There was a hole drilled through the foundation, possibly for a exterior water spigot. However, nothing was ever installed and the hole was never sealed. Mice exploited the opening and came into the home.  Mice only need a hole about the size of a dime to squeeze through. These rodents are even smaller than they look because of all their fur. They have no collarbone, so if they can stick their head through an opening, the body will follow.

I always carry disinfectant and a hepa vacuum with me. I first sprayed the the droppings before cleaning them up. It is dangerous to disturb dry droppings because microscopic particles containing dangerous pathogens like potentially fatal hantavirus are released into the air.   

Preventing entry is key to rodent control. I stuffed the entry points with copper mesh that rodents are unable to chew through. Finally, I secured a rodent bait box on the home’s exterior near the hole. The combination of these strategies will soon put an end to the mouse problem for these homeowners.