Pest Control in Marine Park, Brooklyn
Marine Park is a family-oriented residential neighborhood in southeastern Brooklyn, named for the huge park at its center. At more than 500 acres, Marine Park is the largest park in the borough, with ball fields, a track, a golf course and a vast stretch of salt marsh along Gerritsen Creek. The Salt Marsh Nature Center on Avenue U offers trails through the wetlands. Surrounding streets are filled with attached and semi-detached brick homes built mostly in the mid-20th century. Avenue U, Flatbush Avenue and Kings Highway are the main commercial strips, and Kings Plaza shopping center is just to the east. The area is home to many city workers and long-established Irish, Italian and Jewish families.
About Marine Park
The area was once farmland and marsh in the old town of Flatlands. In the early 20th century, landowners donated marsh and meadow along Gerritsen Creek to the city, and plans were drawn for a major park and harbor, though much of the early vision was never built. Row after row of brick homes went up on surrounding farmland from the 1920s through the 1950s. The Hendrick I. Lott House, a Dutch farmhouse dating to the 1700s, still stands in the neighborhood as a reminder of its agricultural past.
Common Pest Problems in Marine Park
With hundreds of acres of salt marsh, grassland and wooded edges at its center, Marine Park has more wildlife than most Brooklyn neighborhoods. Raccoons and opossums travel from the park and the Gerritsen Creek wetlands into backyards, where they raid garbage cans and den under decks, sheds and porches. The high water table near the marsh keeps many basements damp, which brings centipedes indoors and supports subterranean termites around wood framing and porches.
Mice are a steady problem in the rows of attached brick homes, where connected basements and shared walls let them move from house to house, especially in fall. Rats are drawn to the marsh edges and to the Avenue U and Flatbush Avenue commercial strips. Homes on blocks bordering the park often see higher pest pressure than those several streets away. The mice, in particular, often ride along with firewood, patio cushions and garden supplies brought inside at the end of the season, so inspect items before storing them indoors.