Pest Control in Garment District, Manhattan
The Garment District occupies the blocks roughly between 34th and 42nd Streets from Fifth Avenue to Ninth Avenue, a historic center of American fashion design and manufacturing. Although most clothing production has moved elsewhere, fabric stores, button and trim shops, pattern makers and showrooms still fill the side streets. Seventh Avenue, nicknamed Fashion Avenue, carries the Fashion Walk of Fame. Herald Square and Macy's anchor the southern end, while Bryant Park offers green space at the northeast corner. Hotels and residential buildings have multiplied. Transit is outstanding, with Penn Station, the 34th Street-Herald Square station, Times Square and the Port Authority Bus Terminal all at its edges.
Also known as: Fashion District, Garment Center, Herald Square.
About Garment District
From the early 1900s, garment factories moved into tall loft buildings here, displacing crowded Lower East Side sweatshops. By the 1930s the district produced a large share of the clothing made in the United States, employing hundreds of thousands of workers. Manufacturing declined after the 1970s as production moved overseas. Zoning rules protecting garment manufacturing space were relaxed in the 2010s, allowing more offices, hotels and residential conversions.
Common Pest Problems in Garment District
The Garment District's loft buildings have long held bolts of wool, silk and other fabrics, making them natural habitat for clothes moths and carpet beetles. Moths persist in textile shops and showrooms and can spread to nearby residential and hotel floors. Stacks of cardboard, paper patterns and fabric remnants also shelter mice, silverfish and German cockroaches. Sample rooms and fabric warehouses stay undisturbed for long stretches, allowing hidden moth populations to build.
Street-level food carts, delis and the enormous crowds around Penn Station and Herald Square generate a lot of trash, supporting rats that nest in subway structures and building basements. Pigeons roost on the ornate cornices and window ledges of the loft buildings and flock around Herald Square and Bryant Park, making bird-control common for property owners. Older loft buildings converted into residences may still share freight elevators, basements and trash rooms with commercial tenants, which can spread roaches and mice between uses.