Pests We Treat Before & After Photos

Recently, I was sent to a home in Spring Lake, NJ, to resolve a mouse issue in the kitchen. This was an older home that had an old-fashioned bread drawer (breadbox) with a tin cover. For those of us who have been around awhile, they were once commonly found in kitchens. Now, with breads being made commercially with food preservatives and wrapped in plastic, we rarely see them installed in modern kitchens. 

According to the homeowner, the bread drawer cover had rusted away, giving mice easy access to the bread. There were holes chewed through the dread bag and mouse droppings in the drawer. Any time there is a mice infestation in the kitchen, there is a risk of food contamination from their waste, and it is important to resolve this health hazard quickly. I inspected the other parts of the kitchen cabinet, but mouse activity was limited to the bread drawer. Apparently, with a ready and accessible supply of food in that drawer, there was no need for them to forage elsewhere. 

Usually, rodents enter a home around the foundation.They find gaps and cracks, often around gas or water pipes entering the home where the sealant has deteriorated. Once inside the basement or crawl space, the wall run along the sill plate (the wood closest to the ground on the top of the foundation walls) until they find a way to gain access to the living spaces of the home up above. Here, I found a gap around the sink drain under the cover plate (escutcheon plate), the base plate disc around water pipe at the wall penetration. These plates are visible around faucets and tub or shower fixtures, but plumbers also use them around sink drains. I sealed the gap with a chew-proof copper mesh. I also found mouse droppings on a ceiling tile.

I set up mouse bait stations under the kitchen sink as well as several points on the basement sill plate where there were signs on rodent activity. I scheduled a two-week follow-up inspection in two weeks to re-inspect and determine additional treatments as needed to get this mouse problem resolved.

This homeowner in Spring Lake, NJ was getting her roof repaired and as the roofer was moving to one side of the home, he got attacked by several angry bald-faced hornets! The roofer ran inside and the homeowner called us for help.

When we inspected the home, we found the hornets nest tucked underneath the soffit. No wonder the roofer never saw it!  Bald-faced hornets have white markings on their face and have smooth stingers, which means they can sting an unsuspecting victim over and over again. We grabbed our extendable pole, attached a knockdown aerosol product to it, and then injected it into the nest. We then waited several moments and treated the nest with a knockdown liquid application. Both of these treatments rapidly exterminate the bald-faced hornets.

After a short amount of time we removed the nest, disposed of it, and then treated the area with a residual application to eliminate any returning hornets as well as prevent them from building another nest. 

I was called to a community in Oakhurst, NJ where a homeowner was concerned about a huge hornets nest on a tree outside of a school bus stop. I arrived after all children were in school to treat the nest. I dusted the entrance/exit of the nest and then poked a hole in nest to eliminate the population trapped inside the nest. After allowing a few moments to pass, giving a chance for the treatment to take effect,  I cut the nest off the tree. It's quite interesting to see the inside of the nests.

Recently, I was sent to treat and remove a paper wasp nest for a homeowner in Oakhurst, NJ.  

Paper wasps have that typical appearance we associate with wasps — a slender waist and long legs. They are called “paper” wasps because of how they build their nests. These wasps gather fibers from plant material and mix it with their saliva to make a brown or grey papery material for nest-building. They will build a small paper nest with a single tier of open cells to lay their eggs and rear their young. The nest has no external covering and looks like an umbrella, (that’s why paper wasps are sometimes called umbrella wasps). These nests are commonly attached to the underside of some structure by a short stalk.  

Paper wasps, like any social insect, live in large colonies with a queen and the supporting workers that keep the colony thriving. Other social wasps that we regularly receive calls for are hornets, and yellow jackets. Although paper wasps are considered less aggressive than these other wasps that’s of little consolidation to anyone stung by one of these guys! Any wasp will aggressively defend its nest if it perceives someone as a threat, so a wasp nest that’s in an area where people are regularly walking to and from is a potential hazard that must be removed. If a nest is located somewhere on the property where it’s out of the way and not likely to be disturbed, I recommend to just leave it alone. Wasps can be beneficial insects by reducing other insect populations on the property.

For this nest, I used a quick knock-down aerosol and then removed the nest. These stinging insect jobs are particularly rewarding to me because I know that I likely prevented some awfully painful stings. 

A property manager of an office building in Oceanport, NJ spotted an active hornet's nest along the roofline of his building and was terrified that his workers could get stung, so he called our office for help and I was sent out.

Once I found the nest, I took a closer look and several angry bald-faced hornets came flying out. Bald-faced hornets are social stinging insects with white markings on their face and are a close relative to yellowjackets  — which means that they are extremely aggressive. Their stings are extremely painful and, because their stinger isn't barbed, they can sting multiple times.

I grabbed my extendable pole, attached an aerosol knock-down application to it, and began treating the nest. This product will exterminate the bald-faced hornets almost immediately. A short while later, I removed the nest, disposed of it, and applied a residual along the entire roofline of the office building to prevent future stinging insects from infesting the area.