Pest Control in Willowbrook, Staten Island
Willowbrook sits in the heart of Staten Island, south of Victory Boulevard and bordered by the Staten Island Expressway and the northern edge of the Greenbelt. The College of Staten Island's wooded campus occupies a large part of the neighborhood, and Willowbrook Park offers a lake, hiking trails and the Carousel for All Children. Residential streets are filled with detached houses, high-ranches and semi-attached homes, many built after the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge opened, along with some condominium developments. Shopping along Victory Boulevard and at the nearby Staten Island Mall is a short drive away, and express buses connect commuters to Manhattan.
About Willowbrook
Willowbrook was rural farmland until the mid twentieth century. In 1947 New York State opened the Willowbrook State School for children with intellectual disabilities, which became notorious for overcrowding and abuse after a 1972 television exposé. The resulting reforms reshaped care nationwide, and the institution closed in 1987. The College of Staten Island moved onto the former campus in 1993, while suburban homes filled the surrounding land from the 1960s onward.
Common Pest Problems in Willowbrook
Willowbrook Park and the adjacent Greenbelt forests bring a large wildlife population right up to residential backyards. Raccoons and opossums wander out of the woods at night, raiding trash and settling under decks, porches and sheds, and gray squirrels nest in the tall oaks along the park edge before moving into attics through soffits and vents. The wooded College of Staten Island campus adds more cover, so homes on the neighborhood's southern and western streets see the most wildlife traffic.
Garter snakes and other nonvenomous species live along the park's streams, trails and stone walls, and they occasionally turn up in garages, window wells and basements of nearby homes. Much of the housing is wood-framed and several decades old, making subterranean termites a steady concern, especially where decks and landscape timbers touch damp soil. Mice move indoors each fall, often through garage doors and gaps around utility lines that have loosened over time.