Pest Control in Rossville, Staten Island
Rossville is a historic neighborhood on Staten Island's southwestern shore, stretching along Arthur Kill Road near the waters of the Arthur Kill. The area includes Sandy Ground, one of the oldest free Black communities in the United States, whose history is preserved at the Sandy Ground Historical Museum. Along the waterfront, the rusting hulks of old tugboats and barges in the Arthur Kill ship graveyard draw photographers and history buffs. Housing ranges from historic frame houses to postwar detached homes and newer semi-attached developments. Woods, wetlands and open land still surround much of the neighborhood, giving it a rural feel unusual for the city.
Also known as: Sandy Ground.
About Rossville
Rossville grew in the nineteenth century as a small port and farming village, and was named for William E. Ross, a local landowner. In the 1830s free African Americans, many from Maryland, settled in the adjacent Sandy Ground community and worked as oystermen, building homes and the Rossville AME Zion Church. After oystering ended, the area remained rural, with the Blazing Star Burial Ground and old houses marking its past. Suburban development arrived gradually after the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge opened.
Common Pest Problems in Rossville
Rossville's woods, marshes and undeveloped waterfront along the Arthur Kill give wildlife easy access to homes. Raccoons and opossums move from wooded lots and wetland edges into yards at night, raiding trash and seeking shelter under decks, porches and sheds. Garter snakes and other nonvenomous species are common in the brush and around old stone foundations, and they sometimes slip into basements and garages through gaps near ground level, especially in late summer.
The historic frame houses along Arthur Kill Road, some more than a century old, are particularly vulnerable to subterranean termites, which thrive in the damp soils near the water. Industrial and marine sites along the Arthur Kill, along with vacant lots and overgrown parcels, provide cover for Norway rats that forage into residential streets. Mice enter homes each fall, often through settled foundations and old utility openings in older houses.