Pest Control, Bed Bug Extermination & Attic Insulation in Trenton, NJ

A short while ago, we were sent out to a home in Trenton, NJ to treat for termites. The customer reported seeing damaged in the attached garage, so that's were we inspected! Sure enough, we found evident termite damage to the wooden beams in addition to discovering a large number of termite mud tubes. Termite mud tubes are pencil-width size tubes made by the worker termites. They use these tunnels to travel to and from their nest when foraging for food and allow the termites to stay moist underground.

For treatment, in order to to effectively target the termites, with the owner's permission we drilled into the flooring of the garage as well as around the entire exterior of the home in order to reach them with our treatment. Once we finished with that we injected a liquid temiticide into all the drill holes. This treatment binds to the treated areas and creates a protective zone that the termites can't detect.

As the termites go about their business they'll come in contact with the termiticide and bring it back to their colony. They will then transfer the treatment throughout their nest, not knowing they are sharing an application that'll exterminate their entire colony in short amount of time. The best part of this application is that it will last for many years and protect the home from termites.

While we were inspecting our rodent bait stations at this property in Trenton, NJ, we found a female black widow in one of them! Black widows are infamously known from the popular belief that the female eats the male after mating. What may shock you is, that is a phenomenon that rarely happens in nature! Black widow spiders are usually black in color and are most recognized for the red hourglass shape on the underside of their abdomen (occasionally, the females are brownish-black). Although deaths from black widows are rare, their venom is approximately 15 times stronger than a rattlesnake’s! Male black widow spiders rarely bite, but the females may bite in defense (especially after laying eggs). Their bites can cause a victim to have a high fever, increased blood pressure, sweating, difficulty breathing, and nausea. Pain is usually almost immediate and reaches its maximum in 1-3 hours. The worse part is that the pain may continue for one to three days after the bite! 

For treatment, we applied a knockdown liquid application directly to the black widow. This treatment will rapidly exterminate it. After that, we replenished the bait in the bait stations and then, at the homeowner's request, performed a crack and crevice treatment around the entire exterior of the building with a residual application that is specifically labeled to eliminate spiders.

Like any rodent, squirrels are compelled to chew on things ... and they are chewing all the time. Rodents are the single largest group of mammals with more than 2,000 species. Besides squirrels, those rodents that we are most familiar with are rats, mice, woodchucks (groundhogs), beavers, and those “adorable” rodents like hamsters and gerbils that kids want to keep as pets.  All rodents (from Latin rodere, “to gnaw”) have one thing in common: four long front-most teeth (incisors), two on the upper jaw and two on the lower.  Their constant gnawing creates perpetually sharp chiseled edges. Like all rodents, a squirrel’s front teeth will grow throughout their entire lives, and they do so at a pretty rapid pace. To prevent them from growing too long, squirrels must constantly gnaw in order to file them down. If they didn’t, we would have millions of scary saber-tooth squirrels running around giving us nightmares! 

This behavior doesn't necessarily mean that squirrels are trying to gnaw their way into your house. Cowleys sometimes receives calls from homeowners who are  concerned (or even convinced) that some crazy squirrels are hell-bent on trying to chew their way inside. After investigating, more often than not, we find that the squirrels just using a part of the house as a file to grind down their teeth. Squirrel gnawing is wildlife dentistry! 

In extreme situations like the one where squirrels are really doing a number on the house, wildlife technicians at Cowleys can perform a "free roaming" squirrel trapping service that will reduce the squirrel populations in the immediate vicinity of the home. We’ll trap and safely relocate as many as we can away from your residence.  

As a wildlife technician, I’m often asked if there is an effective squirrel repellent. The most effective one that I’ve found is a spray made of cayenne pepper. There are plenty of recipes online to make a spicy cayenne pepper broth. Some add other food items for good measure that squirrels hate like chopped onions or chopped jalapenos. Another effective squirrel repellent is red fox urine. If you don’t want to go through the time and trouble of collecting it yourself, you can buy it online or at most hardware stores. It should be noted that any of these repellents are a temporary deterrent at best.