Pest Control in Jamaica Hills, Queens
Jamaica Hills is a small, hilly neighborhood wedged between Jamaica Estates, Briarwood and downtown Jamaica. Its best-known feature is Captain Tilly Park, a sloping green space built around a kettle pond that residents know as Goose Pond. Highland Avenue curves along the ridge, lined with apartment buildings and older single-family homes, while Hillside Avenue forms a busy commercial spine with South Asian groceries, restaurants and shops. Queens Hospital Center sits on the neighborhood's western side. The F train stops at 169th Street and Parsons Boulevard, making the area popular with commuters. Jamaica Hills has one of the largest Bangladeshi communities in the city alongside longtime residents of many backgrounds.
About Jamaica Hills
The name comes from the hills of the terminal moraine that run through the area, the same glacial ridge found in neighboring Jamaica Estates. Development picked up after the early twentieth century as lots were carved from estates overlooking downtown Jamaica. Captain Tilly Park honors a local soldier killed in World War I. Apartment buildings arrived along Highland Avenue in the decades before and after World War II, and the extension of the subway along Hillside Avenue in the 1930s made the neighborhood a convenient commuter base.
Common Pest Problems in Jamaica Hills
The apartment buildings along Highland Avenue and the side streets off Hillside Avenue see the classic urban trio of mice, German cockroaches and rats. Many of these buildings are decades old, with worn plumbing chases and gaps around radiator pipes that let pests pass from unit to unit. The restaurants and groceries on Hillside Avenue produce a steady stream of food waste, and rats that feed behind storefronts often travel into adjacent residential blocks and basements.
Captain Tilly Park and the mature trees on the hilly residential streets support a healthy squirrel population, and it is common for them to find their way into attics of older Tudor homes. The damp basements typical of houses built into slopes, along with older bathrooms in prewar apartments, also create good conditions for silverfish, which feed on paper, glue and starch. Homes that back onto the park or have heavy tree cover tend to see these problems more often.