Pest Control Contractor & Exterminators in Sayreville, NJ

During a regularly scheduled pest control service of this property in Sayreville, NJ, we noticed several trails of ants on the side of the building. So we followed their trail all the way to the pond filtration equipment, about 30 feet away, and discovered their nest underneath the equipment.

For treatment, we applied a granular bait around the pond equipment and then around the entire landscape. Afterward, we treated the exterior of the building with a liquid residual. Once the ants come in contact with either of these applications, they'll return to their colony and then transfer the treatments throughout their nest. In a short amount of time, the ant colony will be exterminated.

Recently, I was sent to a home in Whiting, NJ, to help a homeowner with a pest infestation in her kitchen. She had seen crawling insects on her kitchen countertop. She managed to snag a couple in a baggie to show me. I immediately knew what bug I was dealing with — cigarette beetles, a common pantry or stored-product pest. The adults are usually reddish-brown in color and oval, almost square, shaped. Its head is bent downward, so it appears hunchbacked. They are confused with drugstore beetles, a similar looking pantry pest, but cigarette beetles are known for their serrated antennae. They are called cigarette beetles because they commonly infest dried tobacco. Although they love tobacco products (cigar collectors live in fear of them!), these bugs and their worm-like larvae eat pretty much anything — and not just “food grades” items like pet food, flour, pasta, and spices. These bugs will devour canvas paintings, book bindings, furniture, and even rat poison!   

With any pantry pest, my concern is contamination of stored foods, I always start my inspection with any grain, flour, or cereal products in the cabinet. Those are the foods that are most popular with pantry pests in homes. I want to find any infested products and get rid of them. They are filled not only with bugs, but also their larvae. I don’t want any of these foods to be accidentally consumed. I saw a box of Hungry Jack pancake mix and, sure enough, it was infested with these beetles. The homeowner told me that the pancake mix had been in the cabinet for months untouched (except for the bugs that were going to town in it!). I inspected the other products in the cabinet just to be sure that the infestation was limited to this one box of food. Fortunately, no other foods had yet been infested. I believe this infestation was caught in its early stages. 

I emptied out the cabinet and treated it with a crack and crevice aerosol, and told the homeowner to not use it for a few days. I put the infested pancake mix in a sealed bag and took it with me for proper disposal. Finally, I recommended to the homeowner that she keep stored foods, especially flours and grains, in plastic sealed containers that can’t be accessed by pantry pests and other insects foraging for food. The homeowner was pleased that I was able to so quickly identified what these bugs were, locate where they were hiding, and most importantly that I could resolve the infestation so quickly. There are a few nuisance pests worse than those that invade your kitchen and contaminate your food.

While servicing one of my commercial accounts in Sayreville, NJ, I noticed a cluster of American cockroaches around some steam pipes in the drop ceiling. American cockroaches are not common pests in most homes. They can be abundant in stores and commercial facilities such as grocery stores, prisons, restaurants, hospitals, and an office and apartment buildings. They prefer to inhabit warm, damp locations including steam tunnels, boiler room, and sewage ejector pits. Strong Flyers, these cockroaches can easily migrate from building to building. In the summer, large numbers accumulate in outdoor locations such as dumps, and yards. In the fall, they migrate into surrounding structures. Although they feed on a variety of materials, they prefer fermenting foods.

American cockroaches are particularly sensitive to drying, so it is important to reduce moisture by repairing leaks, improving drainage, and installing screen vents to increase airflow. 

We treated this facility using my compressed air sprayer. I then applied a residual insecticide to the surface areas, around the pipes, and into cracks and crevices. I inspected the same area on my next service and was pleased to find that the chemical placement worked to perfection. I did a thorough inspection of entire area and there were no roaches to be found! 

Recently, I was dispatched to an apartment complex in Sayreville, NJ, that we service monthly. Upon arrival, I spoke with the property manager. He told me that one of the tenants was having problems with German cockroaches. German roaches are the most common species of roaches. They are light brown to tan with two dark stripes just behind their heads. They can fit through openings as small as 3/8 inch, so roach infestations in an apartment building are a problem because its so easy for them to spread from unit to unit.

They feed on almost anything including soap, glued and toothpaste. Roaches live and breed in filth and sewage. They can pick up all sorts of pathogens and parasitic worms on their bodies and carry this waste into food or on food preparation surfaces. Roaches are a health hazard not only for the diseases they carry and food contamination, but also roach allergens can trigger allergic reactions and exacerbate asthma attacks. 

German roaches breed at exponential rates. They can breed up to six generations a year. A single roach casing (oothecae) can contain dozens of cockroach eggs just waiting to hatch. One German roach oothecae can produce 50 eggs, and all it takes is a little over three months for these babies to mature into adults! Needless to say, a German roach infestation can grow out of control in a very short period of time. 

With any kind of vermin, it is essential to keep the area clutter-free. Clutter provides almost unlimited harborage sites and allows pest populations to skyrocket. With extensive clutter, it is difficult to determine the extent of the infestation because the pests stay hidden. As seen in the attached pictures, this tenant had a major problem with clutter. Not only are there numerous areas of harborage for these unwanted insects, but it also makes it extremely difficult to effectively treat the infestation because of the number of potential hiding spots.     

The tenant left the apartment while I performed the service around the clutter as best as I could. the condition of this unit, for a professional pest control technician, is one of the worst case scenarios. Pest infestations often require a cooperative effort to obtain successful results. I informed the property manager and the tenant that the clutter in the apartment has to be reduced before my follow-up visit. This level of clutter is unsafe for the tenant and makes pest control treatment extremely difficult. As all property managers understand, just one problem tenant who does not properly maintain his or her living space can cause major pest issues for an entire building.

I arrived at my commercial account, a restaurant in Sayreville for my monthly servicing. I always start by asking my accounts if there are any pest problems or indications of pest activity. I like to hear from them as soon as there is a problem, but, if the problem is not severe, sometimes they wait until their servicing. All of us at Cowleys work hard to stay on top of any pest infestation issues, so little problems don’t morph into larger ones. 

The owner stated that he recently started to have some fly issues in the kitchen. During my inspection, I observed Phorid (hunchback) flies. Phorid fly larva can only survive in decaying organic matter, so it’s common to find them breeding in areas where organic material and standing water is present. You’ll usually find them in floor drains. Fruit flies and drain flies also commonly breed in drains, and all of these flies are small “gants,” so it’s easy to confuse them. Besides their humpbacked appearance, Adult Phorid flies have the peculiar behavior of rapidly running across tables, windows, and other objects, and their flight is short and erratic.

I placed bio foam sanitizer in all drains throughout the kitchen, and recommended that all of the flooring around pipes be throughly cleaned using a soap containing enzymes that break down grease instead of regular mop soap. When dealing with Phorid flies in the commercial kitchen areas of restaurants and other facilities, it is important to look for actual and potential breeding sites and eliminate them, and it is crucial to regularly clean flood drains. Also, using bleach and hot water doesn’t cut it. You need to use a bio sanitizer that will actually dissolve the underlying organic matter that is needed by the fly larvae to grow.