Cowleys Pest Services Before & After Photos

This homeowner in Princeton, NJ found herself with bats nesting under the fascia leaving guano (the excrement of birds and bats) deposits all over the deck. Bat guano happens to be an excellent organic fertilizer because of its high nitrogen and phosphorus, but it is also a health hazard. Bat and bird guano can contain numerous pathogens including  a fungus that causes histoplasmosis, a serious chronic lung disease, and exposure, Including breathing in these airborne particles, is dangerous for homeowners. Also, bats are major carriers of rabies. Bat infestations need to be removed and professional experienced in excluding bats from nesting in your home should be brought in. This is not a DIY project and you should not be working in a bat-contaminated area without proper protective equipment. For this home, I completely covered the fascia with a metal barrier to keep them from roosting in and between the fascia board.

Recently, homeowners in Lawrence Township, NJ in Mercer County contacted Cowleys to upgrade their dirty, dusty crawl space. Crawl spaces are perhaps the most ignored areas of a home. They can also be fraught with problems that can affect the living spaces above. Dirty crawl space air circulates throughout the home, so even if you don’t see what’s going on down there, the crawl space in a very real way is visiting you on a daily basis. Crawl spaces are also notorious for high indoor humidity levels, for mold growth, and their damp, dark environment attracts insects. Many homeowners deal with pungent smells and poor indoor air quality because of problem crawl spaces.

This homeowner was bothered that there was a filthy area right below their first floor and decided it was time to do something about it. Cowleys has an experienced contractor crew that can improve crawl spaces in a variety of ways, up to and including the installation of a full CleanSpace encapsulation system. Crawl space encapsulation seals off the outdoor elements that can trigger all sorts of problems. Even if you don’t see puddles of water in your crawl space, ground soil is naturally saturated with water. By definition, any crawl space with a soil floor is damp and filled with moisture most of the time. 

For this homeowner, we installed thick mold-resistant drainage matting to create a barrier between crawlspace and floor, a primary entry point of unwanted groundwater.  We wrapped the walls with SilverGlo wall insulation, an Expanded Polystyrene Foam (EPS) product coated in a mold-resistant aluminum and put protective warping on the crawl space pillars as well. Finally, we put in a heavy-duty 20-mil CleanSpace vapor barrier. Our vapor barrier is much thicker and sturdier than a regular liner, and we mechanically fasten it to the walls. When, on occasion, you or a repair person need to access your crawl space, the barrier will not pull off or tear.

Once we completed the installation, these homeowners now benefitted from a home with a clean, improved crawl space. This home improvement will make their home more comfortable for the family, improve the indoor air quality, and reduce the risk of crawl space mold growth. For these homeowner, an added benefit was that their crawl space could now be used as a much-needed clean and dry storage area. 

Recently, I was sent to a homeowner in Princeton, NJ who was having a problem with yellow jackets. It’s bad enough when you see these nasty stinging insects flying around outside your home, but here, it was even worse. They had made their way inside one of the downstairs rooms.  

I needed to determine how they were gaining access inside the home, and start with an exterior perimeter inspection. I observed yellow jackets flying in and out of an opening in the siding. Yellow jackets are ground-nesters. They usually build nests inside cavities. Often, we find them in hidden locations such as rodent burrows, behind bark, or in hollowed-out  stumps. They also make use of man-made structures and will build their nests attached to eaves, or like here, behind siding. Yellow jackets are strong, hardy insects that are powerful enough to chew through drywall and even plaster, so they can make their way from wall voids into the living areas of home, a frightening experience for any homeowner, to say the least. These yellow jackets were likely nesting up in a ceiling or in a wall void, and a mature nest can grow to be quite large with several thousand members.  The little bit of good news was that, according to the homeowner, no one in the household was allergic to wasp stings. Nevertheless, yellow jackets are aggressive, territorial wasps. They often sting without provocation, and their stings pack a wallop. It was important to have this infestation resolved quickly.

I treated the opening with a highly effective dust that will be carried back by the foraging wasps to the nest, spreading throughout. The residual dust will continue to work for months, killing any emerging wasps. This hidden nest should be completely neutralized within a day, and this family will no longer have to worry about these stinging insects. 

We were sent out on a service call for a new Home Protection Plan customer in Princeton, NJ who found an a yellow jackets nest in his bathroom! The owner was in the process of renovating the bathroom and when he removed a portion of the drywall close to the ceiling, he was attacked by several angry yellow jackets! The problem with yellow jackets nesting in the wall is that they think they are in the ground and will try to expand their nest by chewing through the infrastructure of the home! 

For treatment, we injected a knockdown dusting application directly into the nest. This treatment exterminates the yellow jackets almost immediately. After several moments, we removed the nest, cleaned the area, and disposed of the nest. Now the owner can continue with his renovations without worrying about getting stung!

While servicing on one of Cowleys commercial accounts in Somerville, NJ, I noticed that some of the floor drains were quite dirty with accumulated organic matter on the walls of the drains. This “gunk” can easily become a breeding ground for fruit flies, drain flies, and other small gnats. 

To treat these potential breeding areas, we use a bio-foam, a bioenzymatic cleaner that continuously breaks down the decaying organic matter, removing a choice breeding habitat for these pests. I applied this product generously to the basket, pipes, and anywhere else that build-up was evident. Going forward, I recommended a stringent cleaning program to prevent this from re-occurring. Often, especially with restaurants, the source of the pest problem is hidden food debris, whether behind appliances or inside drains. A commercial kitchen may superficially look spotless, but once you start doing some digging, you realize that there are many food sources allowing these pests to survive and thrive. Instituting and enforcing sanitation and hygiene protocols can make all the difference.