Pest Control in Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn
Gerritsen Beach is a close-knit waterfront community on a small peninsula in southern Brooklyn, bounded by Shell Bank Creek, Plumb Beach Channel and the Gerritsen Inlet, with Marine Park to the north and Sheepshead Bay to the west. Gerritsen Avenue is the main road into the neighborhood, which feels more like a seaside village than part of the city. Streets are lined with small wood-frame houses, many of them former summer bungalows, and a canal cuts through the community with boats docked behind homes. The area has a volunteer fire department and a strong Irish American identity, and it relies on buses and cars rather than subway service.
About Gerritsen Beach
The area is named for the Gerritsen family, early Dutch settlers who operated a tide mill on Gerritsen Creek. In the 1920s developers built hundreds of small summer bungalows here, marketed to working-class New Yorkers looking for a getaway by the water. Over the following decades most bungalows were winterized and converted to year-round homes. Hurricane Sandy in 2012 flooded nearly the entire neighborhood, and many homes were raised, repaired or rebuilt afterward.
Common Pest Problems in Gerritsen Beach
Gerritsen Beach may have the highest termite risk in Brooklyn. Its houses are mostly wood-frame bungalows from the 1920s, built close to the ground on sandy, water-saturated soil, and many were soaked by Hurricane Sandy. Wet sill plates, crawl spaces and wood siding give subterranean termites everything they need. The same dampness draws centipedes and earwigs into homes, particularly in low-lying crawl spaces and around foundation plantings. Many of these houses have been modified piecemeal over decades, leaving hidden gaps.
Water surrounds the community on nearly every side, and marsh grass along the creeks shelters rats that forage around bulkheads, boat docks and garbage areas. Raccoons are common visitors from nearby Marine Park and the marsh edges, often denning under raised houses and porches. Mice move into the snug, older homes each fall, finding gaps in aging wood siding and around pipe penetrations. Boat trailers, crab traps and gear stored in narrow side yards give these animals extra hiding places close to the houses.