Attic Insulation & Pest Control Exterminators in Bayville, NJ

During a routine service for a Home Protection Plan customer in Bayville, NJ, we noticed some firewood that was piled on the lawn on the side the home. That's never a good sign, as firewood that is improperly stored will attract pests and rodents can harbor in them. Sure enough, as we inspected the pile, we found that is was loaded with carpenter ants.

Carpenter ants are wood-destroying insects and are so named because they excavate wood in order to build their nests. They typically nest outdoors in damp, decaying wood like tree stumps, logs, or hollowed-out trees. Occasionally, carpenter ants build their nest inside a home, seeking out water-damaged, decaying wood that they can easily excavate. In doing so, they can seriously damage the structure of the home.

We spoke to the homeowner and, with her permission, we properly discarded all the firewood. Next, we treated the area, and the entire exterior of the home, with a liquid residual application. Afterward, we applied a granular bait throughout the grassy areas of the property. Once the worker carpenter ants come in contact with either of these products they'll return to their nest and transfer the treatments to the other ants in the colony and their queen. A short while later, the carpenter ants will be exterminated.

Lastly, we spoke to the owner once again and mentioned that all firewood must be placed at least 5 feet above the ground on a cement slab as well as be placed at least 20 feet from the home. 

Recently, homeowners in Bayville, NJ, contacted Cowleys to deal with a possible wildlife infestation in their attic. Like clockwork, the homeowners would hear noises coming from the attic the first thing in the morning, right before leaving for  work. Whatever had taken up residence above them was on the same work schedule! 

When the homeowners told me what they were hearing and the timing of the noises, I suspected a squirrel infestation. Sure enough, that’s exactly what it was. The most common nuisance animals that infest attics from access points in and around roofs are squirrels and raccoons. With less frequency, we deal with bats and birds. Of course, mice and other rodents often make their way into the attic. However, they usually enter around the home’s foundation and then find their way up there through wall voids (although every so often, mice will make their way to the roof by climbing up a gutter downspout). 

With squirrels in the attic, homeowners usually hear the fast pitter-patter of these light and fast animals scurrying about. Sometimes you’ll hear scratching sounds or acorns or some other nut rolling around. As these homeowners found out, squirrels are diurnal rodents — they are active mostly during the day, so you’ll commonly hear them in the morning at first light, and then again in the evening when returning from foraging. 

With any wildlife infestation, I always want to determine how the critters are gaining access into the home in the first place. Here, I observed a hole at the top of the stucco chimney area. Squirrels are actually very small animals and look much bigger because of their fur. They usually weight not much more than a pound and, excluding their tail, are no more than 10 inches in length. A gray squirrel can squeeze through a hole as small as a quarter — about the same as a rat! Eastern gray squirrels have two breeding periods per year, one in early spring with the pups born in March or April, and a second litter in mid-summer with the babies arriving in July or August. Because of the time of year, it was highly likely that this invading squirrel was a female with pups.  

Effective animal trapping is more than setting up equipment. It’s as much of an art as it is science. Those who don’t know what their doing often come up empty handed. It requires careful planning, a knowledge of the target species, the correct bait and trap locations, and how and where to safely remove trapped animals, among other things. Here, I installed a multi-catch squirrel trap that can catch multiple squirrels without having to reset the trap as well as three baited traps along the roofline.  After successfully catching the mother, I carefully removed the pups. One of the photos shows the babies in their nest with insulation around the outside. I released the mother while leaving the pups inside the open trap. It’s important to minimize handling of the pups and allow the mother to retrieve them one-by-one and take them to her new nest. 

These homeowners also had a large roof gap along the gutter line. With the high squirrel population in this area, this opening posed a risk of a wildlife re-infestation. Cowleys addressed his issue by installing a gutter guard that critter proofs the gap and prevents entry for a majority of nuisance wildlife. 

Recently, I was dispatched to a commercial kitchen in Bayville, NJ that was having a problem with flies entering their facility through their backdoor. Flies carry a host of diseases and can transfer fecal matter and other pathogens to anything that they land on, including food and counter-tops. Obviously, for restaurants or anyone in the food service industry this is a serious health hazard. Fly infestations must be resolved in their early stages before they get out of hand and before the problem is noticed by patrons.

To deal with this fly infestation, I installed a fly light that attracts and traps many types of flying insects, including flies, gnats, and mosquitoes. The fly light lures insects with a special UV light and shiny surfaces and then captures them on pheromone fly monitor boards.  After this servicing, the customer decided join our fly control program so we can institute preventative measures to keep out flies and keep tabs on insect activity. These trapping boards will allow me to monitor the level of fly activity on subsequent visits. Needless to say, for a commercial kitchen, fly control is essential and restaurants should look for pest control service experienced with the unique pest control needs of their business.