Pest Control in Jamaica, Queens
Jamaica is the commercial heart of Southeast Queens, a busy downtown built around Jamaica Avenue and one of the largest transit hubs in the region. Jamaica Station connects nearly every Long Island Rail Road branch with the AirTrain to JFK, while the E, J and Z trains terminate at Jamaica Center and Sutphin Boulevard. Shoppers crowd the 165th Street pedestrian mall and the stores along Jamaica Avenue, and York College anchors the blocks south of the avenue. Beyond the core, side streets hold older frame houses, prewar apartment buildings and a growing number of new rental towers. The population is strongly Caribbean, African American, South Asian and Latino, and the neighborhood's food, churches and shops reflect that mix.
Also known as: Downtown Jamaica, Jamaica Center.
About Jamaica
The Dutch granted a patent here in 1656, and the settlement took its name from the Lenape word for beaver, rendered Jameco. Jamaica served as the seat of the old Town of Jamaica and later of Queens County, and Rufus King, a signer of the Constitution, made his farmhouse here, now King Manor. After the railroad arrived and elevated trains followed, Jamaica Avenue became a regional shopping destination in the early twentieth century. A 2007 rezoning around the station spurred the current wave of tower construction.
Common Pest Problems in Jamaica
Downtown Jamaica's density drives most local pest calls. Dozens of food vendors, bakeries and fast-food counters line Jamaica Avenue and Sutphin Boulevard, and the commercial trash they generate each night gives Norway rats a steady food supply. Burrows show up in tree pits, under sidewalk vaults and along the rail embankments around the station. German cockroaches travel between shared walls in the older apartment buildings and mixed-use storefronts, and mice move in from the same basements once the weather turns cold, often following pipe chases up into apartments.
Pigeons are a real nuisance around the rail viaducts, the AirTrain structure and the ledges of older commercial buildings, where droppings foul entrances and ventilation units. On the quieter residential blocks toward Hillside Avenue and Liberty Avenue, the housing changes to detached wood-frame homes with porches and small yards, and that is where subterranean termites become a concern, especially in houses with wooden steps or sill plates close to the soil. Pavement ants also nest under stoops and walkways and wander indoors each spring.