Pest Control in Kew Gardens, Queens
Kew Gardens is a small, green neighborhood tucked between Forest Hills, Richmond Hill and Briarwood, bordered by Forest Park on the west. It feels a bit like a village, with a cluster of shops, cafes and a vintage cinema around Lefferts Boulevard and the Kew Gardens LIRR station. Streets of Tudor and Arts and Crafts houses curve through wooded blocks, while larger prewar apartment buildings line Austin Street and Queens Boulevard. The population is diverse, including Orthodox Jewish, Bukharian, South Asian and Latin American families. Queens Borough Hall and the borough's criminal courts sit at the neighborhood's northern edge, and the E and F stop at Union Turnpike-Kew Gardens.
About Kew Gardens
Developer Albon Man and his son Alrick Man bought the land in the late nineteenth century, and after the Long Island Rail Road rerouted its line in 1909, they laid out a planned suburb named after the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in England. English-style houses and apartment buildings followed through the 1910s and 1920s. The neighborhood kept its garden-suburb character even as Queens Boulevard, Borough Hall and later highways developed along its edges.
Common Pest Problems in Kew Gardens
Kew Gardens' wooded streets and position beside Forest Park bring regular encounters with squirrels and raccoons. Squirrels nest in the tall street trees and readily enter attics through gaps in roof trim, dormers and old wood soffits. Raccoons travel from the park and nearby Maple Grove Cemetery, searching for food in garbage cans and occasionally moving into chimneys or crawl spaces. The older wood-frame and half-timbered houses are also vulnerable to subterranean termites where wood touches soil.
In the prewar apartment buildings along Austin Street and Lefferts Boulevard, pest problems look more urban. Mice move through old walls and pipe chases, especially during cold months, and German cockroaches spread through shared plumbing and garbage areas. The small commercial strip near the LIRR station and the highway corridors around Union Turnpike and the Van Wyck support rats, which burrow in embankments and along the railroad cut. Buildings near the tracks often see a spike in rodent activity after heavy rain floods burrows.