Pest Control in East New York, Brooklyn
East New York stretches across the eastern edge of Brooklyn, running from the Broadway Junction transit hub and Atlantic Avenue down toward Linden Boulevard and the Jamaica Bay shoreline, with the Queens line on its eastern flank. It is a working neighborhood of blocks lined with two-family houses and rowhouses, punctuated by NYCHA developments and a growing number of new affordable apartment buildings. Pennsylvania Avenue and Livonia Avenue are major spines, and residents rely on the A and C trains along Fulton Street, the L along Livonia Avenue and the 3 train that ends at New Lots Avenue. Caribbean, Latino and African American families make up much of the community, and churches and corner stores anchor daily life.
Also known as: ENY, New Lots.
About East New York
The area began as part of the old Dutch town of New Lots, farmed by settlers who moved east from Flatbush in the 1600s. In 1835 Connecticut merchant John R. Pitkin bought farmland here and laid out a village he named East New York, hoping it would rival Manhattan. Rail lines and later elevated trains brought waves of row construction in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the town of New Lots was annexed by the City of Brooklyn in 1886. A 2016 city rezoning has since spurred new apartment construction.
Common Pest Problems in East New York
Many East New York blocks mix century-old frame rowhouses with vacant lots, auto shops and newer construction sites, a combination that gives Norway rats plenty of places to burrow and forage. Excavation for new buildings along corridors like Atlantic Avenue can push established colonies into neighboring backyards and basements. Older two-family homes with settled foundations, gaps around utility lines and shared walls let mice travel from one unit to the next, especially once cold weather arrives and they move indoors from yards and lots.
Large public housing complexes and multifamily buildings with shared trash chutes and compactor rooms create steady conditions for German cockroaches, which spread through plumbing chases between apartments. Pigeons roost under the elevated structures around Broadway Junction and along Livonia Avenue, leaving droppings on sidewalks, fire escapes and air conditioner brackets. In the older wood-frame houses closer to Jamaica Bay, damp soil and aging sill plates also make subterranean termites a real possibility that homeowners should not dismiss.