Pest Control in Bushwick, Brooklyn
Bushwick lies east of Williamsburg and Bed-Stuy, running from Flushing Avenue down to the Cemetery of the Evergreens and the Broadway Junction area, with the Queens border at Ridgewood to the northeast. It is one of Brooklyn's most vibrant Latino neighborhoods, with a large Puerto Rican, Dominican and Ecuadorian community whose shops fill Knickerbocker and Wyckoff Avenues. Its industrial western edge, near Morgan Avenue and Jefferson Street, is known for street art and converted studios. Housing is mostly three- and four-story walk-ups and frame row houses, with grand old mansions along Bushwick Avenue. The L train and the elevated J/M/Z line along Broadway and Myrtle Avenue serve the neighborhood.
About Bushwick
Settled by the Dutch in the 1600s as Boswijck, or town in the woods, Bushwick became a center of German brewing in the late 1800s, when more than a dozen breweries operated in the area. Brewers built the Victorian mansions still standing on Bushwick Avenue, while workers filled new tenements. After brewing declined, the neighborhood struggled, and it was hit hard by fires and looting during the 1977 blackout. Steady rebuilding followed, and artists began arriving in the 2000s.
Common Pest Problems in Bushwick
Bushwick's density, food corridors and aging walk-ups create near-perfect conditions for German cockroaches and rodents. The markets, bodegas and restaurants along Knickerbocker, Wyckoff and Myrtle Avenues produce plenty of trash, and rats forage from curbside bags and backyard gardens behind row houses. Many buildings date from the early 1900s, and gaps in old brick, crumbling mortar and aging plumbing let mice and roaches move from apartment to apartment throughout the year.
Pigeons are a constant under the elevated tracks on Broadway and Myrtle Avenue, nesting on steel girders and dropping onto sidewalks, cars and window ledges below. The flat roofs of converted warehouses near Morgan Avenue also draw large flocks. During the warmer months, pavement ants find their way into ground-floor units and restaurant kitchens, while fruit left out in apartments with shared courtyards can draw them farther inside. Stacked delivery boxes in hallways can harbor both pests.