Before & After Photos

Recently, I was called to a home in Asbury Park, NJ to handle a mouse infestation. As often happens this time of year when temperatures drop, mice seek refuge inside homes. Here, the homeowner found two common signs of mice — droppings and noises in the wall voids. Mice are nocturnal and do their foraging in the quiet of night. Often, the mice stay hidden but leave a trail of droppings behind. Here, the homeowner told me that he found droppings in their bedroom closet.

During me inspection, I found a trail of droppings along the bedroom baseboard heaters (mice are attracted to anything generating heat) leading to the bathroom. I also found mice were chewing up pieces of toilet tissue paper and the cardboard rolls and using it as nesting material. Whenever dealing with a rodent infestation, it is important to determine their entry points into the home and how they are able to move about once inside so that their access points can be sealed. Here, I found that there were gaps around the water pipelines into the bathroom, which explains why the homeowners had heard noises inside the wall voids. I sealed the gaps around the pipes using expanded foam resin and installed interior rodent bait stations in the bathroom. With the bait stations and access points sealed, these homeowners will not have to worry about mice scurrying about their bedroom and bathroom.

This homeowner in Wannamassa, NJ, was having an issue with wasps nesting in her gable vent. After our pest control team had safely and effectively exterminated all the stinging insects, I was sent out to exclude all the gable vents. The gable vents were weathered and wide open, which makes them vulnerable to a pest, nuisance wildlife (such as squirrels, raccoons, and bats), and bird infestation. 

In order to prevent this, I properly excluded all the gable vents around the home with some sturdy material. Now the gable vents are 100% excluded from pests, birds, and all nuisance wildlife. 

A commercial building in Wall Township, NJ, was having a problem with pigeons roosting under the solar panels. As pigeons do, these birds were depositing their droppings all over, defacing the building and annoying for customers entering and exiting the premises. It was an intolerable situation.  

Pigeons are one of the most common nuisance birds faced by commercial property owners. Many view feral pigeons as vermin because of their toxic waste and the diseases that they carry. These birds enjoy a virtually unlimited food supply and thrive around human populations. Unfortunately, nuisance birds shuffle from one building to the next. When they are “evicted” from one location with deterrent devices, they inevitably become someone else’s problem.  

Pigeon droppings are more than an unsightly nuisance. Their droppings are highly acidic. In fact, their waste matter is white because of the uric acid crystals in their watery “bombs.” that splatter and make a sticky mess. Their waste is strong enough to dissolve paint and damage property. Also, their droppings contain numerous pathogens and parasites. Touching or even just breathing in the airborne spores can transmit a variety of diseases, including histoplasmosis, a respiratory fungal infection.

The property owner contacted Bird Solutions By Cowleys to resolve this bird infestation permanently. We inspected the area to determine how the birds could be blocked from the roof area. The most effective solution was installing a bird barrier around the perimeter of the solar panels.With this barrier in place, birds or wildlife could no longer enter under the solar panels to nest where they could chew wire and cause other property damage.

Tennis, anyone? Recently, I was sent to a country club in Wall Township, NJ that was having a wasp issue near their tennis courts. Fortunately, none of the members had yet been stung, and I was glad that I could remove the nest before anyone had an encounter with these stinging insects.  

Upon inspection, I found that a baldfaced hornet nest had formed on a nearby tree. A mature nest can grow quite large and house hundreds of wasps. Baldfaced hornets are a close relative of yellow jackets, and they are just as aggressive and territorial. These wasps are readily identified by their white markings on their face and abdomen. They commonly build their nests off tree limbs, but we also find them attached to homes and other structures. 

Like all social wasps, they aggressively respond to their nest being threatened. Before starting treatment, I alerted a pair of players in the court that I would be treating the nest and they may want to consider a brief delay of their match. They wholeheartedly agreed! 

I treated the nest from a safe distance, first using an aerosol to knock down the population before removing the nest. Once I observed that there was no more wasp activity around the nest, I removed it from the tree, and bagged it so I could take the nest with me. I thanked the players for their delay of game, and with the nest removed, their match could continue without these stinging spectators nearby.

A property manager of an apartment complex in Belmar, NJ called our office after his maintenance team saw a few squirrels coming out of the soffit area of one of his apartment units. He called our Little Rascals Nuisance Wildlife division and we were sent out.

As we inspected the unit, we noticed that the flashing on the soffit was missing. Apparently, there was a big wind storm the other night and this caused the flashing to rip right off! The squirrels saw the opportunity and took full advantage.

Fortunately, the squirrels left the area and were no longer present in the unit. We disinfected the attic area and installed new metal flashing on the soffit. Now the apartment unit is no longer vulnerable to any future squirrel intrusions.