Pest Control in Crown Heights, Brooklyn
Crown Heights stretches from Washington Avenue east to around Ralph Avenue, between Atlantic Avenue to the north and Empire Boulevard to the south. Eastern Parkway, the grand tree-lined boulevard designed by Olmsted and Vaux, runs through its center and is the route of the West Indian American Day Parade each Labor Day. The neighborhood is home to one of the largest Caribbean communities in the country and is also the world headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement at 770 Eastern Parkway. Franklin and Nostrand Avenues are bustling commercial streets. Housing ranges from grand mansions and limestone row houses to large prewar apartment buildings. The 2, 3, 4, 5, A, C and S trains serve the area.
Also known as: Crow Hill.
About Crown Heights
The area was once called Crow Hill, and the name Crown Heights came into use in the early 1900s. Eastern Parkway was completed in the 1870s, and elegant row houses and mansions followed. Large apartment buildings arrived after the subway extended along Eastern Parkway in 1920. Caribbean immigrants began settling here in large numbers in the 1960s, while the Lubavitch community established its headquarters in 1940. The neighborhood is now protected in part by the Crown Heights North Historic District.
Common Pest Problems in Crown Heights
Crown Heights' busy food corridors along Nostrand, Franklin and Utica Avenues, with their bakeries, restaurants and markets, generate a lot of trash that supports large rat populations. Older prewar apartment buildings along Eastern Parkway and Montgomery Street have many shared plumbing lines and trash rooms where German cockroaches thrive. Mice slip into row houses and mansions through gaps in old foundations and around utility lines, especially during fall and winter.
The mature trees along Eastern Parkway and in Brower Park support many gray squirrels, some of which end up in attics and roof cornices. Pigeons nest on the ledges and fire escapes of the large apartment buildings and gather along commercial streets where food scraps are plentiful, leaving droppings on sidewalks, window sills and air conditioners. Large crowds and food vendors during the Labor Day parade season also leave extra trash along Eastern Parkway, which briefly boosts rodent activity along the route and nearby side streets.