Pest Control in Castle Hill, Bronx
Castle Hill stretches south from Parkchester to the East River, framed by Westchester Creek on the east and the Soundview area to the west. Castle Hill Avenue is the neighborhood's spine, with shops and restaurants near the 6 train's Castle Hill Avenue station on the Westchester Avenue el and quieter residential blocks toward the water. The large Castle Hill Houses complex anchors the center, while the southern tip near Castle Hill Point has small waterfront homes and a private beach club. Unionport, one of the Bronx's older villages, is often counted as part of the area. The population is largely Puerto Rican, Dominican, Bangladeshi and African American.
Also known as: Unionport, Castle Hill Point.
About Castle Hill
The name is said to date to 1614, when Dutch explorer Adriaen Block saw a Siwanoy fortification on a hill here that reminded him of a castle. The area remained farmland with a few waterfront estates until the early 20th century. Rowhouses and small apartment buildings were built as the Westchester Avenue elevated line arrived, and the Castle Hill Houses, completed in 1960, brought thousands of new residents.
Common Pest Problems in Castle Hill
Castle Hill's waterfront edges and the marshy banks of Westchester Creek offer rats plenty of cover, and colonies move easily between the shoreline, vacant parcels and the lawns and trash compactors of the Castle Hill Houses. Raccoons live in the wooded and marshy fringes near the creek and Castle Hill Point, raiding garbage cans and sometimes denning in garages or crawl spaces of detached homes near the water. Heavy rain and storm surges push rodents out of low-lying burrows and toward higher, drier buildings.
Inside, mice and German cockroaches are persistent issues in both high-rise public housing and the attached two-family homes common between Westchester Avenue and Lafayette Avenue. Shared walls make coordinated treatment important. The detached wood-frame homes toward Castle Hill Point are more exposed to subterranean termites, particularly where damp soil, older wooden porches and fences contact the house, so homeowners there benefit from periodic termite inspections and from keeping mulch and firewood well away from sills.