Pest Control in Greenpoint, Brooklyn
Greenpoint is Brooklyn's northernmost neighborhood, bounded by the East River on the west, Newtown Creek on the north and east, and McCarren Park and Williamsburg to the south. For generations it has been the heart of New York's Polish community, and Polish bakeries, delis and churches still line Manhattan Avenue and Nassau Avenue. Side streets are full of modest row houses and a landmarked district of 19th-century brick and brownstone homes around Milton and Noble Streets. Waterfront parcels along West Street and at Greenpoint Landing now hold large new towers. The G train is the only subway here, with ferry service at India Street providing a quick ride to Manhattan.
Also known as: Little Poland.
About Greenpoint
Greenpoint was farmland until the mid-1800s, when shipbuilding, porcelain works, glass factories and oil refineries turned it into an industrial powerhouse. The ironclad USS Monitor was built at the Continental Iron Works here in 1862. Workers' housing filled the streets, and Polish immigrants arrived in large numbers from the early 1900s on. Oil refining along Newtown Creek left a long environmental legacy, and a 2005 rezoning began the shift of the old industrial waterfront toward residential use.
Common Pest Problems in Greenpoint
With Newtown Creek on two sides, a busy waterfront construction zone and older sewer infrastructure, Greenpoint has well-established rat populations, and residents on blocks near the creek and McCarren Park often see them after dark. Many of the neighborhood's row houses are wood-frame buildings more than a century old, with gaps in siding, crawl spaces and old coal chutes that let mice move in when temperatures drop. Cockroaches travel through the shared plumbing of the multi-unit homes common on side streets.
Damp basements are a Greenpoint staple thanks to old foundations and the low-lying land near the water, so house centipedes and silverfish turn up often in cellars, bathrooms and ground-floor apartments. Long-time residents in older homes also deal with clothes moths, which settle into wool coats, rugs and stored bedding kept in closets and trunks in these prewar buildings, particularly in rooms that stay undisturbed for months. Silverfish in particular like the paper, books and cardboard boxes many residents stack in basement storage.