Pest Control in Travis, Staten Island
Travis is a small, somewhat isolated community on the western edge of Staten Island, where Victory Boulevard ends near the Arthur Kill. Surrounded by marshes, creeks and the open fields of Freshkills Park, the neighborhood has a village feel, with older frame houses on large lots mixed with newer detached and semi-attached homes. The William T. Davis Wildlife Refuge, one of the city's oldest nature preserves, protects tidal wetlands on its eastern side. Travis is known for its long-running Fourth of July parade, and it retains a strong sense of community despite industrial sites along the waterfront and the heavy truck traffic on nearby roads.
Also known as: Travis-Chelsea, Linoleumville.
About Travis
Originally called Long Neck and later New Blazing Star after a ferry landing, the community grew around a linoleum factory that opened in the 1870s, and for decades it was known as Linoleumville. Around 1930, as the factory's days were ending, residents adopted the name Travis. The opening of the Fresh Kills Landfill in 1948 hemmed the neighborhood in, and since the landfill's closure in 2001 the land has been gradually transformed into parkland.
Common Pest Problems in Travis
Few city neighborhoods sit as close to open marsh as Travis. The tidal wetlands of the Davis Wildlife Refuge, the creeks of the Fresh Kills estuary and the grasslands of Freshkills Park surround homes on several sides, and raccoons and opossums travel out of that habitat nightly to raid garbage, pet food and bird feeders. Both animals den beneath porches, sheds and older outbuildings, and homes on the larger lots sometimes find them nesting in detached garages or crawlspaces.
Snakes are also part of life here, most often garter snakes and other harmless species that hunt along the marsh edges and stone foundations. Industrial yards along the Arthur Kill, combined with vacant parcels and brush, give Norway rats plenty of cover, and mice head indoors each autumn. The older frame houses in the village core, some dating to the Linoleumville era, are particularly worth checking for subterranean termites, which thrive in the damp, low-lying soils.