Pest Control in Mott Haven, Bronx
Mott Haven occupies the southwestern tip of the Bronx, where the Harlem River bends toward the Bronx Kill and the Third Avenue, Madison Avenue and Willis Avenue bridges land from Manhattan. East 138th Street is its main commercial spine, lined with bodegas, taquerias and discount stores, while Alexander Avenue's stately brownstones earned the nickname Doctors' Row. The 6 train runs beneath 138th Street with stops at Third Avenue, Brook Avenue and Cypress Avenue, and the 4 and 5 stop at 138th Street–Grand Concourse. The population is largely Puerto Rican, Dominican and Mexican, and a wave of glassy rental buildings has recently risen along the waterfront near the bridges.
Also known as: Mott Haven Historic District, Doctors' Row.
About Mott Haven
The neighborhood is named for Jordan L. Mott, the inventor and industrialist who bought land along the Harlem River in 1841 and opened an iron works that made stoves and cast-iron goods. Factories, piano makers and rail yards followed, and by the late 1800s speculative builders had lined streets like Alexander Avenue and East 139th Street with brownstones and brick rowhouses for managers and skilled workers. Tenements filled the side streets, and after World War II several large public housing projects replaced older blocks.
Common Pest Problems in Mott Haven
Mott Haven's mix of century-old rowhouses, packed tenements and high-rise public housing gives rats and German cockroaches plenty of shared walls, pipe chases and trash rooms to exploit. The blocks around St. Mary's Park and the Major Deegan and Bruckner corridors have long been flagged by the city as rat hotspots, with burrows in tree pits, planted medians and the soft soil of park edges. Restaurant and bodega trash on 138th Street keeps populations fed, and mice follow rats into basements through gaps around aging brick foundations.
The waterfront construction boom adds another layer: excavation along the Harlem River pushes rodents out of long-undisturbed ground and into neighboring buildings. Older brownstones on Alexander Avenue and Willis Avenue often have damp cellars and plaster walls that harbor silverfish, and the elevated tracks and bridge approaches draw roosting pigeons that foul fire escapes and air conditioner ledges. Residents in tenements tend to see roaches migrate between units whenever a neighbor sets off a fogger, which is why coordinated building-wide treatment works far better here.