Before & After Photos

I was sent to a home in Belmar, NJ to help a homeowner dealing with a bird infestation. Some birds had decided to use her chimney to nest. Chimneys can be quite popular nesting spots for birds since they resemble high perches in nature. Nuisance birds can cause significant property damage with their acidic droppings. As pretty as birds are from a distance, they happen to be dirty wildlife and are dangerous to have around homes and other structures. Their droppings are toxic and contact with them or even just  breathing in their airborne particles can cause serious respiratory diseases. 

First, to deal with this bird infestation, I carefully removed any nesting material and debris left behind from the birds in the chimney. I then installed a chimney cap and placed Bird Barrier Optical gel in plastic pucks on top of the chimney, gluing them in place with a silicone adhesive.  

Bird control is all about behavior modification. The objective is to create a inhospitable environment, so they move elsewhere. This bird gel is one of my favorite bird deterrents. To us, this product looks like a bland, boring white gel. However, birds look at it much differently. They have far better color vision that us and see a much broader spectrum of colors. To birds, this gel looks like a giant fireball. Birds aren’t the brightest of creatures, but no bird has any interest heading into a raging fire! This big bird illusion is highly effective in keeping them away.

This Belmar homeowner was quite relieved that I had taken care of her bird problem so quickly. Once birds find a good nesting spot, they don’t usually leave on their own. As a bird control specialist, my job is to determine the best “incentives” for that property to get the birds to vacate on their own. Now, with the chimney cap and optical gel, these birds will be relocating to a friendlier location.

After setting up our rodent bait stations to get a handle on the mouse infestation at this home in Sea Girt, NJ, we're returning for a follow up visit. After we replenished the bait in all the stations, we stuffed all the access points with chew-proof metal mesh. Rodents typically don't like chewing through metal because it's extremely uncomfortable for their teeth and gums. Next, we sealed all the openings with a premium, waterproof adhesive. The combination of the two materials makes for a great deterrent. We'll return for a few more follow-up visits to monitor the mice infestation and replenish the bait stations as needed.

This customer in Sea Girt, NJ, had a fox nesting underneath her front porch, so she called Little Rascals for help and we were sent out. After setting up our retrieval devices, we safely obtained the fox and relocated it to a new, safer location. All that's left is to exclude the porch to prevent any future fox intrusions.

First, we dug a 12 inch deep trench around the entire porch and installed hardware cloth. The hardware cloth is installed 12 inches deep and 12 inches out from the bottom of the home. This creates a sturdy "L shaped" perimeter that will prevent foxes and other nuisance wildlife from digging and nesting underneath the home. Afterward, we removed the broken lattice around the entire porch, installed new lattice around the area, and placed more hardware cloth over it. Now the area is properly excluded from all future fox, and other nuisance wildlife, intrusions.

This homeowner in Spring Lake, NJ had ants all over her kitchen counter, so she called our office and we were sent out to inspect and treat. When we inspected the interior, we found some ant activity on the kitchen counter, but nothing too large. It wasn't until we went outside and found ants trailing from her garbage cans into the kitchen. The homeowner immediately started to clean out hr garbage cans and move them away from her home.

In the meantime, we applied a gel bait to the ant trails on the kitchen counter and treated the baseboards, cracks, and crevices in the kitchen and the two adjacent rooms with a liquid non-repellent. Afterward, we went outside and applied a granular bait to the grassy areas and then treated the entire exterior with a liquid residual. The ants will bring any of these treatments back to their nest and share them throughout their colony.  A short while later, the ants are extreminated.

Recently, a homeowner in Spring Lake, NJ, contacted Cowleys because a hornet nest had formed on the soffit of her home. It was built fairly high up, so it wasn’t a major threat. Hornets can be aggressive and territorial and will attack if their nest is threatened. Here, there wasn’t much traffic around the nest and everyone was a safe distance away. The homeowner’s concern was that the hornets would gain access inside the home through the attic. To avoid this and any other issue with these stinging insects, I proceeded to remove the nest.

Hornet nests have an entry hole where the foraging wasps enter and exit. I watched their flight pattern in and out of the nest and set up my extension ladder on the opposite side of their activity. I had no interest in meeting these wasps head-on! I climbed the ladder and treated the nest with an aerosol that quickly knocks down the population. I then waited until the wasp activity dramatically slowed down. I reached by nest with the bee pole and gave it a good wack to knock it to the ground so that I could bag it and take it with me off the property. The homeowner was relieved that this nest was removed off her property. There are some people that have no tolerance for stinging insects, and this homeowner was one of them! I was glad to help.