Little Silver, NJ Pest Control Services & Expertise

We were sent out on a service call to the home of a new Home Protection Plan customer in Little Silver, NJ, to handle a rat infestation in her property. After a thorough inspection, we discovered a majority of the rat activity was located in the crawl space. How were the rats able to get in? The crawl space door was broken and just leaning on the opening to the crawl space. We brought this to owners attention and told her that she will continue to have rat problems, as well as other pest issues, unless the crawl space door is repaired and properly installed. She agreed and, contacted our Crawl Space Division to come out on a later date and install a new crawl space door.

In the meantime, we carefully cleaned up all the rat droppings and installed several rodent bait stations throughout the crawl space and along the exterior of the home. Once we finished, we scheduled several follow up visits to monitor to rodent activity and replenish the bait in the rodent bait stations until the rats are no longer infesting the home. 

We were sent out to a new customers home in Little Silver, NJ, to remove some bats that had infested the attic. As soon as we arrived and inspected the attic, we found a large amount of bat guano throughout the insulation. There was so much that almost all the insulation was contaminated and needed to be removed ASAP. Fortunately, our Attic Systems division can remove all the contaminated insulation and install new blown-in cellulose insulation. We brought this to the owners attention and he immediately made an appointment with our Attic team (once all the bats are gone).

After completing our inspection, we determined that the bats were able to infest the home by squeezing through the ridge vent. Ridge vents allow hot air to escape. However, the material that ridge vents are made of can warp from age, heat, and sun exposure. This warping can leave vulnerable areas where nuisance wildlife can enter. In order to safely remove the bats from the home, we temporarily sealed off the entry points with hardware cloth and installed several bat cones. The bat cones will allow the bats to safely exit the attic but prevent them from getting back in. 

Once all the bats are gone we're going to exclude them from the ridge vent with Ridge-Guard®. Ridge-Guard® secures and reinforces the ridge vent shingles to prevent the bats from entering. Ridge-Guard® will not only exclude the bats from the home, but all nuisance wildlife too!

A new Home Protection Plan client in Little Silver, NJ called our office after discovering a massive swarm of "flying ants" on the window sill in her living room. Once we arrived and took a closer look, we quickly realized that there weren't flying ants, but termite swarmers! Termite swarmers are the winged adult reproductives that leave their current nest to form their own colony. Before we began any type of treatment, we fully inspected the home to see if there were any other areas infested with termites. Sure enough, we found active termite mud tubes in the crawl space! Mud tubes are pencil-width size tubes made by the worker termites that the termites use to travel to and from their nest when foraging for food.

For treatment, we drilled into the wall in the living room and injected a foaming termiticide. Next, we then drilled into the concrete in the crawl space, as well as around the exterior of the home, and injected a liquid version of the termiticide. Both of these treatments bind to the treated areas and creates a protective zone that the termites can't detect. The termites will come in contact with the termiticide as they go about their normal routines and transfer it throughout their colony. In a short amount of time, the termites are exterminated and the home is protected for years to come!

This new customer in Little Silver, NJ kept hearing "scratching and squeaking" noises in her attic. So to be safe she called our office for help. As we inspected the attic, we noticed that almost every piece of insulation was saturated with mice feces and urine and we found mice tunnels in several pieces of insulation. Mice will often tunnel in the insulation to create a warm nesting place. There was also a pile of chewed acorns and other food in the insulation!

Continuing our inspection, we found a small gap around one of the utility pipes that the mice were using to infest the attic. So we stuffed it with chew-proof stainless steel mesh and sealed it with a premium waterproof adhesive. Next, we carefully cleaned up the droppings and installed several rodent bait stations in the attic and along the exterior of the home. Lastly, we scheduled several follow up visits to monitor the infestation and replenish the bait in the bait stations until the mice are no longer infesting the home. Once the mice are gone, we will remove all the contaminated insulation and replace it with TruSoft blown-in cellulose insulation. 

As we were servicing this property in Little Silver, NJ, we heard some buzzing noises in a nearby tree. We equipped our protective beee suit, took a look, and found a basket ball sized bald-faced hornets nest about 20 feet up! 

Bald-faced hornets are social stinging insects that are a close relative to yellow jackets. The surface of their upper midsection almost looks triangular from the side, and they have white markings on their face. They build paper nests at least three or more feet off of the ground, usually in trees, shrubs, overhangs, houses, or other structures. One very important fact that you must know about bald-faced hornets is that they are EXTREMELY aggressive and will not hesitate to sting anything that invades their space. Their stings carry venom that makes the stings hurt, itch, and swell for about 24 hours. Humans are at the same risk of allergic reactions from bald-faced hornet stings as with other insect stings. What makes them even scarier is they have smooth stingers, which means they can sting over and over again, can actually sense vibrations in the air, and remember their invader's face!

We grabbed our extendable pole, attached a knockdown aerosol product to it, and applied it directly into the opening of the nest. Several moments later, we treated the nest with a knockdown liquid application. Both of these treatments will rapidly exterminate the bald-faced hornets. A short while later we removed the nest, and the branch it was attached to, and disposed of them properly.

"But I keep my home spotless, how could I possibly have bed bugs?"  

As a bed bug specialist for Cowleys, I hear those exact sentiments from virtually every homeowner who is suffering from a bed bug infestation. Bed bugs are often lumped together with cockroach infestations and are associated with dirty, unsavory places where there is poor hygiene and sanitation. Nothing can be further from the truth. Let’s be clear: Bed bug infestations have absolutely NOTHING to do with filthy kitchens or cluttered, dirty homes. You could be the Martha Stewart of clean, organized homes and still wind up with a nasty bed bug infestation. The reason is simple. Beds bugs are external parasites that feed exclusively off human blood. They don’t care whether your home is clean or dirty. All they are interested in is having a reliable, dependable food source — which is you! If you happen to have been somewhere were there were bed bugs and a few crawled onto you or your belongings, which you then unknowingly bring into your home, you will be the next victim of a bed bug infestation. Even bringing in a single bed bug into your home will trigger a full-blown infestation in just a few weeks.

With this particular bed bug job, I arrived at a beautiful home in Little Silver, NJ and was met by a sweet-as-could-be homeowner who was waking up in the morning with mysterious bites on her arms.  She had suspected that it may be bed bugs because she could not think of any other possibilities, but still did not think it could be possible. After all, her home was immaculately clean, and as the saying goes, her home was clean enough to eat off the floor. For this homeowner, having bed bugs seemed too far beyond the realm of possibility.

She informed me that the only time she is bitten is when she’s in her bedroom. So, that’s the “hot zone” where I started my inspection. If there is one word to use to describe a proper bed bug inspection, it is thoroughness. You can’t assume anything other than bed bugs can potentially be hiding anywhere and everywhere in the smallest nooks and crannies.

First, I slowly removed the blankets and sheets from the bed. You have to remove bedding slowly and carefully. Ripping everything off the bed will turn the blankets and sheets into a slingshot, catapulting any bed bugs into every corner of the room. The first rule of any bed bug treatment is to do no harm by further dispersing the bed bugs.

At first glance, as often happens, there were no bedbugs to be found. However, persistence is the key. I next lifted the mattress and box spring right in front of the homeowner. And there they were in all their glory! She was horrified. Since I’ve seen bed bug infestations many times before, I’ve become a bit desensitized to these insects. Bed bugs in all the different stages of their lifecycle were roaming beneath her box spring, less than a foot from where she was sleeping. It’s no wonder they were feasting on her at night. This is a case of what I would consider a very severe bed bug infestation. And it did not matter that it happened to be in a very clean home.

While a clean home will not prevent bedbugs,  it will certainly make the treatment and eradication much easier than dealing with an infestation in a home full of clutter. The less harborage areas, the better. When a home such as this one is clean and not cluttered, there are very few hiding spaces for the bugs, making it easier to resolve the problem. I’ve been in homes where there were a dozen shoes lying around the bed along with old magazines and various knickknacks. In those cases, all I can think of are the many potential hiding places for the bed bugs to exploit. 

For treating bed bugs, the best course of action is to first vacuum up all of the live activity, and, if the homeowner wants the bed removed from the home, to encase it first so the bugs don’t drop off as it is being moved. I  grabbed my HEPA (high efficiency particulate air) vacuum and sucked up all of the live bed bug activity.  Once I vacuumed all of the live activity, I installed mattress and box spring encasements to seal these prime bed bug harborage. Encasements are critical for stopping any hidden bed bugs from exiting and preventing any new bugs from entering. After applying a light chemical application to all of the harborage areas, I placed the mattress and box spring back onto the bed frame.

The two major lessons of this bed bug job for any homeowner are: (1) A spotless home can still have a thriving bed bug infestation (and it’s not your fault!); and (2) periodically lift and check underneath your mattress and box spring to see what may be lurking below. The sooner a bed bug problem is found and a professional bed bug service is contacted, the easier it is to treat.