Pests We Treat Before & After Photos

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. 

Recently, I was dispatched to a home in Holmdel, NJ that was having a problem with some “large wasps” that had taken up residence, of all places, behind the slats of a hot tub. Upon, arrival, I immediately determined that these homeowners were dealing with a European hornet infestation. These are one of the larger stinging insects that we regularly encounter. They can grow to about one inch long, making them one intimidating stinging insect! Because these insects have some yellow in their markings, they can be easily  confused with yellow jackets. However, they are much larger, thicker insects than the slender yellow jacket. Also, unlike yellow jackets, European hornets usually has some orange in their coloration. Like all social wasps and hornets, European hornets are aggressive and territorial if they perceive that they are being threatened. As far as stinging insects go, both yellow jackets and European hornets are similar in that they both have nasty temperaments and won’t hesitate to use their stingers. 

Unlike baldfaced hornets, paper wasps, and other stinging insects, European hornets rarely build suspended nests attached to tree limbs, roof eaves, and other locations in plain view. Instead, just like they did here, these insects usually build their nests inside a hole or cavity. The location of their nests can make them difficult to reach and treat. Sometimes, these hornets will enter homes for shelter, finding entry point through eaves and vents where they then form nests, commonly in wall voids and in attics.  

Here, I promptly located where these hornets were nesting inside the hot tub. First, I treated the nest with a dust that quickly knocks down the population. After waiting until I observed no more active insect activity, I successfully removed the nest. As shown in the photo, the nest was broken into numerous pieces because I had to pull the nest out piecemeal from inside the hot tub. Since the nest was cracked open, you can clearly see the hundreds of combs inside the nest that housed the hornet larvae. I collected all of the nest pieces, bagged them, and took everything with me so there was no remaining nest debris. Now, these homeowners can resume the use of their hot tub without feeling threatened by these large stinging insects.

A new customer in Colts Neck, NJ called our office after finding a large yellow jackets nest in the attic of his detached garage. As we inspected the attic we found the large, and active, yellow jackets nest tucked in the corner! For treatment, we injected a knockdown aerosol application, waited several moments, and then injected a knockdown dusting application. Both of these applications rapidly exterminate the yellow jackets. 

Once they were eliminated, we removed the nest, disposed of it properly, and cleaned the area.