Before & After Photos

While treating this homeowners' property in Tinton Falls, NJ I discovered a large number of spider webs along with the columns on the front porch. Spiders are hunters, so if you see any in your home or their webbing around your property that means that they have a food source. By eliminating those pests, you’re eliminating the spider's food source and they’ll go elsewhere to find food.

With the homeowner's permission, I inspected the entire interior of the home to find any signs of spiders or any pests, to which I found none. I grabbed my broom and then dusted and vacuumed the spider webs. By removing the spider webbing, the spiders will get frustrated and leave that area. I also treated the columns, the front porch, and the exterior of the building with a non-repellant residual and sealed any gaps or opening around the property with a waterproof adhesive. 

Homeowners in Oceanport, NJ, had an ongoing problem with rodents gaining entry into their crawl space. Usually, rodents will first gain entry inside a home by locating openings around the foundation. And, for mice, it doesn’t take much. These tiny animals that weigh less than an ounce can easily squeeze through gaps as small as a dime. Common rodent entry points are gaps around pipes and wires, garage doors that don’t fully close or are missing weatherstripping, and, the entry point with this home — an access door to the crawl space that no longer did its job. As you can see in the photo, this metal access door had seen better days. It was warped, rusted and had an opening that was an open invitation for rodents. Mice have a distinct knack for finding weaknesses around the foundation, and it was not surprising that they exploited this one. 

Cowleys has a contractor division that is staffed by an experienced, professional home repair and renovation crew that handles a variety of crawl space improvements, up to and including complete crawl space encapsulation for homeowners with chronic water, moisture, and humidity issues. We also happily handle smaller projects such as this one. Here, we removed the damaged crawl space door and replaced it with an air-tight Everlast door. 

Everlast covers help block outdoor air and moisture from entering the crawl space, which can trigger mold formation and cause wood rot and structural damage. However, these doors are also an effective barrier against rodents and other pests. They are made with a hard durable plastic that stands up to the harshest outdoor elements that we face in New Jersey. 

Everlast vent covers are a major improvement over wood or metal doors. These maintenance-free doors will not rot, warp, crack, or rust, and they never need to be painted. Also, they can be installed against either wood framing or masonry. Although these doors create a solid barrier preventing mice and any other pests using this common access point, for humans, they allow for easy crawl space access. These doors have four large easy-to-grip knobs that you or a repair person can twist off in seconds. Homeowners have commented that they wished opening up pickle jars were this easy! As you can see from the before and after photos, this Everlast crawl space door was far more than just a rodent barrier. It was a major aesthetic improvement for the home’s exterior perimeter.

I was sent out by Cowleys to an apartment complex in Barnegat Light to remove an active hornets nest. The insects built their nest in a tree that was close to one of the buildings in the complex. Normally, a hornets nest does not pose a threat to people as long as the nest is not disturbed or approached. Unfortunately, every so often, these pests decide to build their nest in locations where people may inadvertently come too close to the nest. If they feel that their nest and territory is being threatened, a multiple stinging insect attack can easily result. This particular nest was built in a sensitive location. It was about five feet from the sidewalk entering the building and about seven feet off the ground. It was clearly a threat to any of the tenants forced to walk by the nest in order to enter and exit the building. It was an unacceptable situation, and I arrived to correct it.

To deal with this hornet problem, I first incapacitated the hornets that were inside the nest by treating it with a quick knock-down product. Once most of the hornets inside the nest were either dead or dying, I carefully cut the branch holding the nest out of the tree. Whenever you are doing a nest extraction, it is important to be mindful of any foraging hornets returning to the nest. They don’t take too kindly to seeing their nest being removed!

Once the nest and the supporting branch were separated from the tree, I
cut off excessive foliage to remove the treated nest, which I then bagged so that I could remove it from the property. The returning foraging hornets will swarm around the nest site for awhile, but they’ll soon move on when they realize that their nest is no more and there is not even any residue of the old nest to build on. 

Territorial stinging insects like wasps and hornets mean trouble when they decide to build a nest too close to a home or commercial structure. In these cases, the nest needs to be removed by a pest control professional, preferably before there is a serious wasp attack on an innocent person who happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

We recently replaced five foundation vents with Smart Vents for a homeowner in Manasquan, NJ. The old vents would not adequately protect the home from damage in the event of floodwaters from a severe weather events such as a hurricane, tropical storm, or nor’easter, which unfortunately seem to be occurring more frequently and with greater severity. Often, we can simply remove the existing vents and replace them with Smart Vents. However, sometimes, as we did here, we must cut into the foundation to properly fit the improved vents. Either way, the transition from traditional vents to Smart Vents is easy and seamless, and at the end of the day, the homeowner is left with considerable protection of their home foundation against damaging floodwaters. 

Smart Vents prevent severe foundation damage by equalizing hydrostatic pressure. Hydrostatic water pressure can reach tens of thousands of pounds. It’s enough pressure to collapse large dams and retaining walls let alone home foundations. They work by allowing floodwaters to freely enter and exit the basement or crawl space. And how they so it is deceptively easy. Unlike traditional air vents, these vents open automatically and passively on their own once floodwaters reach a certain level. They do not require human intervention and no electricity is needed. The vents provide a 3-inch clearance for small debris and trash to easily pass when the vent door is opened by patented internal activation floats. For vented crawl spaces, there are Smart Vent models with a metal coil sensitive to temperature changes that opens and closes the vent louvers, and, just like the Smart Vent models that respond to water levels, these vents open and close automatically and do not require manual intervention.

Perhaps most important, these vents are FEMA and NFIP (National Flood Insurance Program) compliant. They are deemed so effective by these agencies that the installation of these foundation flood vents can save homeowners, on average, 80% of their NFIP premiums. Any Jersey Shore homeowner with a crawl space or basement in a flood hazard area, especially NFIP-designated V Zones and A Zones, should strongly consider installation of Smart Vents. Smart Vent has its own Flood Risk Evaluator division to ensure that Smart Vent purchasers receive the proper flood insurance rating. They can provide homeowners with an estimate of their new lower flood insurance premium at www.yourfloodrisk.com.

As we get into the winter season and temperatures start dropping, mice become more of a nuisance for homeowners. For survival, these overwintering pests look for warm, dry places to escape the harsh outdoor elements — and our homes are often their targets. Unlike larger wildlife, mice can find the smallest entry points around a home’s foundation to gain entry. They can gain entry through an opening as small as the size of a dime. If they can poke their letting snout into an opening, the rest of the body will follow. Common mouse entry points are garages and crawl spaces. Once inside, mice will travel through wall voids to stay out of sight as they forage for food.  

I was sent to a home in Manasquan, NJ to deal with a mouse problem that was frustrating this homeowner. For mouse infestations, it is critical to perform a thorough inspection of the interior and exterior home perimeter in order to find and seal all of the potential rodent access points. Often, there are droppings and other signs of mouse activity around the openings. Once we find any openings, we assess the problem and seal the gap using a variety of different methods. Because rodents have powerful incisors and an amazing capability to chew through many building materials, we will use chew-proof mesh to ensure that the opening is permanently blocked. With access points blocked and bait traps set, it does not take long for any mouse infestation to be quickly dealt with.