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Our Little Rascals team is at a home in Roosevelt, NJ, to safely remove a raccoon from the property. After a thorough inspection, we determined that the raccoon had ripped apart the soffit returns on the home and infested the attic. A soffit return, also known as an eave return or cornice return, is a architectural detail that occurs when the horizontal cornice of a roof connects to the rake of a gable. It's a feature of Neoclassical architecture where the roof eave on a gable end comes down to a point, then doubles back briefly.
In order to safely retrieve the raccoon, we installed a one-way device over the soffit returns and then temporarily enclosed the areas off with hardware cloth. We also setup several baited devices nearby. The one-way will allow the raccoon to safely leave the area, but is designed to prevent it from getting back in. After a short period of time, we had successfully retrieved the raccoon and relocated it to a new, humane location.
Before we left the home, we fashioned several pieces of sturdy metal flashing and installed them over the two soffit returns to prevent any future raccoons, as well as any other nuisance wildlife, from infesting the home.
After we successfully removed all the bats from this home in Millstone, NJ, we're going to prevent them from getting back in. The bats were able to infest the home via the ridge vent. A ridge vent is an air exhaust vent installed on the peak of a roof. When installing this vent, an air slot is first cut in the roof deck at the roof's peak. This air slot is then covered by the ridge vent itself. They help to provide continuous, uniform exhaust ventilation at the highest portion of the attic and are designed to help resist wind-driven rain and snow, as well as insect and debris infiltration.
To fix this, we installed Ridge-Guard®. Ridge-Guard® secures and reinforces the ridge vent shingles. Now, not only is the home properly secured from bats, but all nuisance wildlife too!
These nuisance birds were defecating all over the stairwell of this college football stadium in Piscataway, NJ, and the owner was sick and tired of it! So he called Bird Solutions by Cowleys for help!
First, we carefully removed all the nesting debris. Afterward, we disinfected the area with a solution that targets bird mites. Bird mites are parasites that feed on the blood of birds. Bird mites are the main reason why extreme care is needed when removing a nest. Next, to properly exclude the birds from the stairwell, we installed bird netting. In order make sure the bird netting is secured, we used a stainless steel cable with net spikes and anchored it into the walls. We then locked the cables in place using copper ferrules and then installed turnbuckles which tighten the cable. We also used hog rings which secures the cable and connects it to the bird netting.
This is 3/4 inch, heavy duty polyethylene bird netting is used to humanely block the nuisance birds from entering any unwanted areas. It creates an impenetrable barrier that denies all nuisance birds the access to this area. Doing this removes the landing areas for the nuisance birds. They'll fly around, realize they can't enter, and move on. Another bonus is that the bird netting is almost invisible, unless you take a real close look at it. Now nuisance birds will no longer roost in the stairwell!
The customer in Edison, NJ, had a situation with a fox harboring underneath her shed in the backyard. Afraid for her pet's safety, she called Little Rascals for help and we were sent out. The first thing we did was install a positive set over the fox's burrow underneath the shed and then installed Dig Defense® around the entire perimeter of the shed. A positive set is comprised of a nose cone that is attached to a two-gaited, heavy-duty device. The nose cone will safely guide the fox into the device. It's called a positive set because we are positive that the fox will enter our device.
Dig Defense® is a below-ground fence system that is 15 inches deep, 4 feet across, and protects structures against all nuisance wildlife. The front of the shed was on a concrete slab, and we were unable to install Dig Defense® around that area. Instead, we installed Pest-Blok across the entire front length of the shed. Pest-Blok doesn't restrict the airflow, undergoes a silicone-protected polyester coating process that makes it last longer, and guards the shed against foxes, raccoons, squirrels, and other nuisance wildlife.
After a short period of time, we successfully retrieved the fox! We then relocated it to a humane environment, filled in the fox's burrow, and installed another portion of Dig Defense® over that opening.
As we were treating this home in Manalapan, NJ we found an interesting pest in the basement - cave crickets! In fact, it was a massive infestation of them throughout the area! Many people refer to them as "sprickets," because they look like a cross between a spider and cricket. Truth is, they aren't arachnids. They're also know as camel crickets because of their humpbacked appearance, which resembles a camel. They are commonly found in caves, as well as damp, cool areas underneath damp leaves, stones, and rotting logs. In homes, the most popular areas they like to invade are basements and crawl spaces (because they are dark and moist).
Camel Crickets do NOT bite, as they have no fangs, nor do they pose any health risks to humans. In fact, their only means to defend themselves is the ability to jump really high to scare off predators. To exterminate the cave crickets, we treated the entire with a granular bait and a liquid non-repellant. Both products will eliminate the cave crickets & prevent them from reinfesting the area.