Pest Control in Van Nest, Bronx
Van Nest is a small residential neighborhood in the East Bronx, bounded roughly by the Bronx River Parkway and Bronx Park to the west, the Amtrak rail line to the north and east, and Parkchester and the Cross Bronx Expressway to the south. Its streets are lined with modest attached and semi-detached two-family houses and small walk-up apartment buildings. Morris Park Avenue and White Plains Road carry local businesses, and Van Nest Park offers a small playground and ballfields. The 2 and 5 trains stop at nearby East 180th Street and Bronx Park East, and the 5 serves Morris Park station. Residents include Italian-American, Puerto Rican, Albanian, Bangladeshi and Yemeni families.
Also known as: Van Nest Park.
About Van Nest
Van Nest is named after Reynier Van Nest, a director of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, which built yards and facilities here in the late 1800s. The neighborhood grew up as a working-class community around the railroad, and its housing was largely built in the early 1900s. Italian immigrants arrived in large numbers, and the neighborhood's attached homes and small apartment buildings reflect that era of steady, modest development.
Common Pest Problems in Van Nest
The rail corridor that gave Van Nest its name also shapes its pest problems. Overgrown embankments along the Amtrak and freight lines give rats undisturbed places to burrow, and rodents move from the tracks into backyards, garages and basements of nearby homes. The Bronx River and Bronx Park to the west are home to squirrels, which often nest in street trees and occasionally find their way into attics and roof spaces of older houses.
Mice are the most common indoor issue, especially in the attached houses where a single shared wall links multiple homes. German cockroaches spread through the small apartment buildings along Morris Park Avenue and White Plains Road, often starting near ground-floor restaurants. Pavement ants frequently nest under stoops, driveways and backyard patios, and in summer they invade kitchens in long foraging trails. Because so many homes here are older and closely spaced, sealing entry points on one house works best when neighbors do the same.