Cowleys Pest Services Before & After Photos

Here are some “before and after” exclusion pictures that I had taken as part of a job to resolve a mouse infestation for a homeowner in East Brunswick, NJ. When dealing with rodents, it is critical to determine how they are gaining access inside the home. You can go ahead and set up bait traps and apply applications to deal with the mice inside the home, but to permanently resolve the problem and prevent re-infestations, you need to locate the entry points used by the mice to gain access into the home. Sometimes you know they are actual entry points because of nearby rodent activity near the gap or crack. For example, if you find tiny, dark pellet-like droppings or smelly urine near the gap or crack, you are pretty much guaranteed that some mice availed themselves of the opening to gain access into the home. Other times during the inspection, the technician may find potential entry points that need to be sealed. 

Finding the gaps and cracks can sometimes be a challenge. Mice are tiny creatures and they can fit through a hole the size of a dime. A good inspection requires a thorough visual of the home’s entire foundation. Often, mice enter into the crawl space or attic and then use wall voids to maneuver their way around the home, eventually making their way to the kitchen to forager for food. Sometimes, the gaps are small and it takes a lot of detective work to find them. However, there are occasions where you’ll find a huge gap that for a mouse would be the equivalent of the Holland tunnel! That was the case here. With this home, there was a huge gap around a utility pipe entering the home. The gaps around pipes and wiring entering the home are always treated as one of the “usual suspects” to check when looking for rodent entry points. Here, you can see the large gap around the pipe.

To seal this gap, I filled it with chew-proof copper mesh. Rodents are persistent creatures that can tear and chew there way through many materials. For example, using caulk to close gaps is never enough. With the copper mesh firmly in place, this access point for mice has been permanently blocked.

This homeowner in East Brunswick, NJ had a bat infestation a while back. Our wildlife team had taken care of the issue and he had a bat warranty with us should there be a later re-infestation. This year, he decided it was time for a new roof. Given his bat issues in the past, he wanted us to come out to the home to make sure that there were no new entries into the home before replacing the roof. We were happy to help out. 

During my roof inspection, based on the earlier infestation and how the bats had gained attic access, I recommended that he consider installing Ridge-Guards over the ridge vents. Ridge vents are an important, necessary part of a home’s roofing system. These vents allow damp, warm air to escape from the attic, which increases the home’s energy efficiency and helps protect asphalt shingles from overheating and warping in the summer. Unfortunately, these vents come with a downside. They are often exploited by small wildlife, especially flying squirrels, bats, and sometimes mice, to gain attic entry.  

This homeowner did not even want to think about another bat infestation after what he had gone through. I recommended that he consider Cowleys for installing a Ridge-Guard system. A Ridge-Guard is a breathable protective cover that we install over the ridge vents. This covering guards against animal entry through the ridge vents. We’ve used this product for homeowners looking for an effective way to prevent bats and other wildlife from gaining access through the ridge vent instead of having to deal with the messy, and often expensive to fix, aftermath of a wildlife infestation.  

As a wildlife technician, I must admit that I enjoy the challenge of capturing and outsmarting wildlife. However, for homeowners, preventing potential wildlife issues from happening in the first place is a far better alternative to dealing with an actual infestation. Cowleys has a separate contractor division with an experienced construction crew that handles various homeowner services including repairs caused by wildlife. 

We went out on a service call for a homeowner in East Brunswick, NJ who was having an issue with poor ventilation in his attic. About 50% of energy costs can be traced to HVAC usage, meaning heating and cooling are one of the biggest expenses for many homeowners. Air leaks between the attic and the rest of the home or outside, insufficient insulation, and poor ventilation are some of the factors that significantly influence your home's energy efficiency, comfort, and costs.

Once we arrived and conducted a thorough inspection, we determined that his attic was severely under-insulated. After bringing this to the homeowner's attention and discussing a few options, he decided to add blown-in cellulose insulation in his attic. Blown-in cellulose insulation is the perfect choice for reinforcing the barrier between your home's attic and other rooms. Insulation limits heat transfer, meaning it prevents heat from escaping during the winter and prevents humidity from entering the home during the summer. Improper installation of light fixtures in the attic can create void areas of missing insulation. Insulation voids allow heat transfer by convection and radiation. Research has shown that just a 4% void in fiberglass batt insulation can result in a 50% reduction in insulation effectiveness. 

We added approximately 10 inches of cellulose to their existing insulation in the attic. Now the home has an extra layer of insulation to prevent heat loss. 

A new customer in East Brunswick, NJ contacted our Nuisance Wildlife division after seeing a raccoon come out of her attic! When we arrived, the homeowner showed us where she saw the raccoon, which was right by the soffit at the peak of the home. As we got closer to investigate, we saw that the soffit area was damaged and found raccoon paw prints near the area. This was how to raccoon was able to invade the home.

We temporarily sealed off the access point with hardware cloth and then installed a nose cone that is attached to a Comstock device over it. The nose cone will safely guide the raccoon into the Comstock device. The Comstock is a two-gaited, heavy-duty device that features super-strong coil springs that powers the trap door. The door locks into place which prevents the raccoon from escaping. We also set up several baited devices nearby. 

A short while later, we successfully retrieved the raccoon and relocated it to a new, humane environment. We then installed sturdy metal flashing over the access point to prevent reinfestation.

Atlantic City Electric was having a major problem with sparrows and starlings in their warehouse. We decided on using one of our favorite bird deterrents, bird netting to solve this problem for our client. These birds will stay away!