Pest Control in St. George, Staten Island
St. George is the front door of Staten Island, the spot where the free ferry from Whitehall lands and where the Staten Island Railway begins its run to Tottenville. The neighborhood climbs steeply from the waterfront along Richmond Terrace and Bay Street, so the view from its upper streets takes in the harbor, the Statue of Liberty and lower Manhattan. Borough Hall, the county courthouse and the St. George Theatre anchor the civic core, while the Empire Outlets and the ballpark sit by the water. Uphill, the St. George historic district holds blocks of ornate Victorian homes, mixed with apartment buildings that house commuters, artists and longtime island families.
Also known as: St George, Saint George.
About St. George
The area was farmland and scattered estates until the mid-1800s. Its name is usually credited to promoter Erastus Wiman, who in the 1880s honored ferry and railroad financier George Law by dubbing the spot St. George in exchange for rights to his waterfront land. Consolidating the ferry and rail lines here turned the village into Staten Island's transit hub, and when the borough joined Greater New York, Borough Hall rose in 1906. Wealthy families built elaborate hillside homes during the same boom.
Common Pest Problems in St. George
Everything that makes St. George busy also feeds its rodent population. Thousands of daily ferry riders, food vendors near the terminal, outlet-mall restaurants and the dumpsters behind Bay Street businesses give Norway rats steady meals, and burrows are common in the planted slopes along Richmond Terrace and around the transit ramps. Mice follow the same routes indoors, especially into prewar apartment buildings where old pipe chases link units from cellar to roof. German cockroaches spread the same way, riding in grocery deliveries and moving through shared walls.
The hillside Victorians face a different set of problems. Many have deep porches, slate or wood cornices and attic vents that have loosened over a century, which is exactly the kind of opening raccoons use to reach attic crawlspaces. Pigeons roost on the ledges of the civic buildings, the ferry terminal and older apartment facades, leaving droppings on fire escapes and air conditioners. Residents in these large, drafty houses often notice problems only when they hear scratching overhead or find nesting debris near the chimney.