Rodent Control in Bed-Stuy

Rodent Pressure in Bed-Stuy

Bedford-Stuyvesant is one of the largest residential neighborhoods in Brooklyn, extending roughly from Flushing Avenue on the north to Eastern Parkway on the south, and from Broadway on the west to Ralph Avenue on the east. The neighborhood's building stock is almost entirely brownstones and pre-war walk-ups from the late 1880s through 1920s — one of the largest concentrations of brownstone architecture in the United States.

Fulton Street runs east-west through the middle of the neighborhood as the primary commercial corridor, with a high density of food service, grocery stores, bodegas, and fast food operations that generates significant Norway rat pressure. The blocks immediately adjacent to Fulton Street — the side streets one and two blocks north and south — see the highest baseline rat pressure in the neighborhood. Malcolm X Boulevard (formerly Nostrand Avenue) and Bedford Avenue are secondary commercial corridors with their own food waste pressure patterns.

The brownstones in Bed-Stuy are in varying states of preservation — some have been renovated with modern utility infrastructure, others retain original construction throughout. In the un-renovated buildings, the foundation mortar is typically in the same deteriorated state as buildings in Park Slope and Crown Heights: over 100 years old, cracked, and providing accessible entry points for Norway rats at every utility penetration. The garden levels of unrenovated brownstones are among the most consistently rat-impacted spaces in Brooklyn.