Cowley's Termite and Pest Services

Reprint from the July 5th, 1998 (Sunday Edition)

BUGGING OUT
A pair of brothers have found their niche removing insects and larger animals from homes.

A couple of years ago, Drew Cowley was called to a home where the resident wanted four raccoons removed from her attic.
Believing that a dead raccoon in the street was the mother of the litter, the resident told Cowley the mother died.

Cowley went up to the attic and found the baby raccoons resting in an old Christmas decoration box. "They were cute," he said.

As he reached over to remove the raccoons from their nest, the mother leaped from a corner of the attic and charged at Cowley. He ran toward the attic door and down the stairs. He knocked the leaping raccoon away with his forearm and fell backwards down the attic steps. But not without injury. The torn cartilage in his shoulder later required surgery.

"It gets dangerous. This is not a normal job," Cowley said.

As co-owners of Cowley’s Bug-Out Pest Control and Cowley’s Little Rascals Animal Control Inc., Neptune City, Drew Cowley and his brother Bill often face danger on the job. They are called upon to get rid of all types of wildlife animals and insects.

They have captured skunks, snakes, groundhogs, squirrels, and have rid homes and restaurants of bats, mice, cockroaches, bees, termites, ants and much more.

The brothers say they enjoy what they do. "It’s a very fun industry. There is never a dull moment," Drew Cowley said.

The most laborious part of the job is eliminating termites and carpenter ants, Drew Cowley said. Such jobs require a lot of digging and drilling and take six to seven hours, he said.

Drew, a graduate of Glassboro State College( now Rowan University), and Bill, a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross, both started out selling advertisement space for a trade magazine. Bill, 36, left to become the owner of an Athletes Foot sneaker store at the Freehold Raceway Mall. Drew, 34, was laid off during the recession and began a sales position with an extermination company.

He soon realized that there is a lot of opportunity to be made in the pest control industry, and after a month and a half, he branched out on his own.

"I bought a truck, a computer, and all the equipment I needed," Drew Cowley said. "I financed it all on my credit card and maxed it out."

It took about $10,000 to get the business off the ground, he said. The business was started in his Tinton Falls home. He now lives in Wall with his wife and two children.

Drew Cowley said with the help of his wife, Sandy, he was able to get customers by simply making telephone calls, knocking on doors and offering free estimates. He also got a lot of business from neighbors and others who knew him when he was growing up in Manalapan.

After a few years, the business became busier and busier. "I was wearing too many hats," he said.

In 1995, Bill who had just sold his athletic footwear business of five years joined his brother as partner.

"I couldn’t be happier," said Bill Cowley, who lives with his wife and four children in Ocean Township. "The thing I like about it is that my brother is my partner. We can grow this thing together. We share the burdens, the responsibilities and the rewards."

Since the brothers have teamed up, business has doubled, Drew Cowley said. He declined to say how much the business grosses annually but he said it is profitable. In eight years, the company has never had a month that was worse than the identical month the year before, he said.

Five months ago, the Cowley's moved the pest and animal control business to an office building they purchased on Route 35 in Neptune. They have a staff of six, including themselves.

The Cowley's like to think of their business as unique in that they are flexible. "We don’t tell customers what has to be done. We work with them," Drew Cowley said.

"If a customer is nervous about chemicals in their home, we have so many other things we can use," added Bill Cowley. "We can customize a service plan for the customer."

And that’s how the Cowley's say they are able to hold on to many of their customers.

Among the pesticide-free methods are glue traps, granular baits and power spraying the outside perimeter of the structure after corking windows and pipes and capping chimneys.

The Cowley's also noted that unlike their company, most exterminator companies deal only with insects, not ordinary animals. "We deal with animals so that we can separate ourselves from our competitions," Bill Cowley said.

The Cowley's said they sometimes get referrals from the Human Society.

And Bill Cowley admits that they don’t always catch all the animals they are called to get. Like the time they were called to trap a fox. "We tried but that fox was awfully smart. We just couldn’t get him."

They have yet to trap a fox, Drew Cowley said. But other than, that Cowley's say they have a good track record at trapping the wild.