Hear from Our Customers
You stop second-guessing every sound in the walls. You stop checking the baseboards before bed. You stop wondering if the roaches are gone or just hiding. That’s what real pest control feels like not just a spray and a receipt, but a home that stays clear.
In Gravesend, that takes more than a surface treatment. These are attached rowhouses and pre-war buildings where pests don’t just live in your unit they move through shared wall voids and pipe chases from one home to the next. Treating one apartment without addressing the source is how the same problem keeps coming back every few months. A real inspection finds where they’re coming from, not just where they’ve been spotted.
The Coney Island subway complex sits within the neighborhood’s boundaries the largest rail yard in New York State and it creates underground rodent corridors that connect directly to the residential blocks surrounding it. Add the proximity to Coney Island Creek and the seasonal pressure that comes with it, and you’re dealing with pest conditions that are genuinely specific to Gravesend. Knowing that changes how the job gets done.
Kingsway Exterminating has been a licensed, family-owned pest control company in Brooklyn since 1971, and we’ve spent those five decades building a reputation in neighborhoods like Gravesend where families stay, where buildings have history, and where people expect accountability from the businesses they hire.
Gravesend has been home to multi-generational families since Lady Deborah Moody founded the settlement in 1643. The neighborhood doesn’t change fast, and neither do the people who live here. They want a pest control company they can actually trust not a national chain rotating technicians, and not someone who showed up last year with a spray bottle and a business card.
We’re NYSDEC-licensed, fully insured, and certified as bed bug specialists. When you call, you’re reaching a real business with real accountability and technicians who know the difference between a building on Gravesend Neck Road and one near the Marlboro Houses, because we’ve treated both.
It starts with a free inspection. Not a sales pitch with a clipboard an actual walkthrough of your home by a licensed technician who knows what to look for in Gravesend’s specific building types. Pre-war construction, brick rowhouses, basement access points, shared utility chases these are the places pests use to get in and move around, and that’s exactly where the inspection focuses.
Once the source is identified, you get a clear treatment plan. What’s being used, where it’s going, why that approach fits your specific situation, and what you need to do to prepare. If you have kids or pets and most Gravesend households do that conversation happens before anything gets applied. EPA-registered materials, targeted application, and a specific re-entry window. No vague “it’s safe when dry” answers.
After treatment, the job isn’t done. We follow up to confirm the problem has been resolved, not just reduced. For ongoing pest pressure which is realistic in a neighborhood with the density, the building age, and the underground infrastructure that Gravesend has recurring service plans are available to keep the problem from cycling back. That’s how you get ahead of it instead of always reacting to it.
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We handle the full range of pest problems that show up in Gravesend homes and buildings. Cockroaches, rodents, bed bugs, termites, ants, wasps, fleas each one gets a treatment approach based on what’s actually happening in your specific home, not a one-size-fits-all package.
Bed bugs get their own conversation. We’re certified as bed bug specialists, which matters in a neighborhood where attached housing means an infestation in one unit can reach the next without either occupant knowing how it happened. Both heat treatment and chemical treatment are available depending on what the inspection reveals. This isn’t a generalist applying a basic spray it’s a specialist who has resolved hundreds of bed bug cases in Brooklyn’s specific housing stock.
For homeowners buying or selling in Gravesend where rowhouses and co-ops regularly change hands along Kings Highway and Avenue U we also provide Wood-Destroying Insect (WDI) inspection reports. Many mortgage transactions, particularly FHA and VA loans, require this documentation from a licensed pest control professional before closing. If you’re under contract and need a WDI report on a timeline, that’s a service we provide directly. Under New York City’s Housing Maintenance Code, landlords are also legally required to maintain pest-free conditions and our service documentation can support compliance if you’re managing a multi-family property in Gravesend.
This is one of the most common questions we hear, and the answer has nothing to do with how clean your home is. In Gravesend’s attached rowhouses and multi-unit buildings, cockroaches travel through shared wall voids, pipe chases, and utility penetrations that connect your unit to your neighbors’. You can keep your kitchen spotless and still have a cockroach problem because the source isn’t in your apartment it’s in a shared structural void or an adjacent unit that hasn’t been treated.
NYC’s density compounds this. Buildings along the commercial corridors near Kings Highway and Avenue U sit adjacent to restaurants and food service businesses that generate year-round pest pressure. Cockroaches from those commercial kitchens don’t stay put. A surface-level treatment inside your unit will reduce what you see, but it won’t eliminate a colony that’s living in the building’s infrastructure. That’s why the inspection has to find the origin point not just the evidence before treatment starts.
One mouse sighting is rarely just one mouse. A single female mouse can produce up to 60 offspring per year, and by the time you see one in the open, there are almost always more in the walls, the basement, or behind appliances. The question isn’t whether you should call it’s how quickly you act on it.
In Gravesend specifically, fall is the most critical rodent season. As temperatures drop, mice and rats begin moving indoors, and older homes with gaps in the foundation, aging mortar joints, and utility penetrations give them plenty of ways in. The neighborhood’s proximity to the Coney Island subway complex the largest rail yard in New York State means underground rodent corridors run beneath the surrounding residential blocks. Rats and mice that breed in that infrastructure don’t stay underground. We can inspect your home’s exterior entry points and interior evidence, confirm the scope of the problem, and treat at the source rather than just setting traps and hoping.
Yes when it’s done by a licensed professional using EPA-registered materials with a clear protocol. The concern is completely valid, and any pest control company that dismisses it without specifics isn’t giving you a real answer.
Here’s what that actually looks like with us: before any treatment is applied, you’ll know exactly what product is being used, where it’s going, and why that product was selected for your situation. You’ll also get a specific re-entry window not “wait until it dries,” but an actual timeframe based on what was applied and where. For families with young children or pets, treatment is targeted and applied in areas that minimize exposure while still addressing the infestation at its source. Gravesend is a family neighborhood, and the technicians who work here know that. The preparation conversation happens before the job starts, not after.
For many mortgage transactions particularly FHA and VA loans yes, a Wood-Destroying Insect (WDI) inspection report from a licensed pest control professional is required before closing. This applies to a significant portion of the real estate transactions happening in Gravesend, where rowhouses, co-ops, and single-family homes regularly change hands along corridors like Kings Highway and Avenue U.
The WDI report documents whether wood-destroying insects termites, carpenter ants, wood-boring beetles are present or have caused damage to the structure. It’s not the same as a general home inspection. It has to be performed by a licensed pest control company, and the report has to meet specific lender requirements. If you’re under contract and your lender is asking for this documentation, we can schedule the inspection and issue the report on a timeline that works with your closing date. Termite damage costs U.S. homeowners an estimated $5 billion per year more than fires and floods combined so beyond the mortgage requirement, it’s genuinely useful information before you commit to a property.
A one-time treatment addresses the current infestation. An ongoing plan addresses the conditions that keep creating new ones. For some situations a single wasp nest, a one-time ant problem after a wet spring a single visit is all you need. But for Gravesend homes dealing with cockroaches, rodents, or recurring bed bug exposure, a one-time treatment often isn’t enough to stay ahead of the pressure.
The reality is that Gravesend’s combination of older housing stock, high population density, proximity to the Coney Island Creek waterway, and underground subway infrastructure creates consistent, year-round pest pressure. Treating once and walking away means you’re reacting every time a new problem shows up instead of preventing it. A recurring service plan scheduled visits to inspect, treat as needed, and catch issues early is how you break that cycle. We can walk you through what makes sense for your specific home and situation during the free inspection, without pushing you toward something you don’t actually need.
Under New York City’s Housing Maintenance Code, yes landlords are legally required to keep residential buildings free of pests. A cockroach infestation is classified as a Class C violation, which is considered immediately hazardous, and landlords are required to respond within 24 hours of a complaint. Rodent infestations carry similar urgency requirements. If your landlord isn’t responding, you have the right to file a complaint through NYC’s 311 system, which can trigger an HPD inspection.
For tenants in Gravesend’s multi-family buildings including the apartment buildings along the neighborhood’s commercial corridors and residents of the Marlboro Houses this matters practically. If you’ve reported the problem and your landlord hasn’t acted, documented service from a licensed pest control company can support your HPD complaint and demonstrate the severity of the issue. We provide service documentation that can be used in exactly this kind of situation. If you’re a small landlord who owns a two- or three-family home in Gravesend and has received an HPD violation notice, a licensed exterminator isn’t just helpful it’s what the code requires.
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