Pest Control in Nolita, Manhattan
Nolita, short for North of Little Italy, is a small, charming neighborhood of tenement-lined blocks roughly between Houston Street and Broome Street, from Lafayette Street to the Bowery. Its narrow streets, particularly Mott, Mulberry and Elizabeth, are lined with independent boutiques, coffee shops and restaurants tucked into ground floors of walk-up buildings. The brick walls of St. Patrick's Old Cathedral enclose a quiet churchyard in the heart of the neighborhood. Residents include longtime Italian-American families and younger renters who value walkable streets and a village scale. The 6 train at Spring Street and the J and Z at Bowery provide nearby subway access.
Also known as: NoLIta, North of Little Italy.
About Nolita
Nolita was historically part of Little Italy, settled by immigrants from southern Italy in the late 1800s who crowded into newly built tenements. St. Patrick's Old Cathedral, completed in 1815, predates that wave and served earlier Irish Catholic residents. As Italian families moved to the outer boroughs after World War II, the area's population shrank. Real estate marketers coined the name Nolita in the 1990s as boutiques and restaurants moved into the storefronts.
Common Pest Problems in Nolita
The tenement buildings that define Nolita were built with shared walls, shared plumbing stacks and narrow air shafts, which lets German cockroaches and mice move easily between apartments. Many ground floors contain restaurants, cafes and bakeries, so residents living directly above a kitchen often notice roach activity rising through pipe chases. Garbage from small businesses along Mott and Elizabeth Streets can sit on the curb overnight, feeding rats. Narrow air shafts collect windblown debris as well.
Pigeons roost on fire escapes and tenement cornices, and some residents deal with nesting in window air conditioner brackets, so bird-control measures are a practical fix. The old brick basements of walk-ups are often damp and poorly ventilated, which encourages silverfish in storage areas and bathrooms. Because units are small and closely packed, a single untreated apartment can keep an infestation going throughout an entire building. Coordinated building-wide service matters here.