Hear from Our Customers
You stop finding them in your kitchen at midnight. You stop wondering if the one you saw is the only one because you already know it isn’t. That’s the real starting point for most people who call us, and it’s a reasonable place to be. Cockroach infestations in Brighton Beach don’t usually start because someone kept a dirty apartment. They start because the building itself creates the conditions.
The pre-war co-ops and six-story brick buildings along the numbered streets have decades of settling cracks, aging pipe gaps, and shared walls that roaches move through freely. Add the moisture that rolls in off the Atlantic year-round, and you have a harborage environment that no spray can from the hardware store is going to fix. When that problem is properly addressed, the difference isn’t just fewer roaches it’s not finding them at all.
For tenants dealing with a landlord who’s slow to act, a professional treatment also gives you documentation. In New York City, a cockroach infestation is a Class C violation immediately hazardous under the Housing Maintenance Code and landlords are required to respond within 24 hours of a complaint. Knowing you have a licensed exterminator on record changes the conversation with your building’s management entirely.
We’re headquartered on Flatbush Avenue in Marine Park just a few miles up the coast from Brighton Beach and have been serving southern Brooklyn since the mid-1980s. This is a family-owned company, founded by Richard Kourbage Sr. and still run by the Kourbage family today. That’s not a detail for a brochure. It means the people making decisions about how your job gets done have been accountable to this community for over four decades.
Our team collectively brings more than 100 years of hands-on pest control experience to every job. We’ve treated the Art Deco co-ops along the Riegelmann Boardwalk, the apartment buildings beneath the B and Q elevated tracks on Brighton Beach Avenue, and everything in between. We know how cockroaches move through elevator shafts in older buildings. We know what a waterbug infestation looks like versus a German cockroach problem and we know the treatment for each is not the same.
We hold a consistent A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau of New York State, are fully licensed, bonded, and insured, and apply only NYS Department of Environmental Conservation Registered Materials on every job.
The first thing that happens is an inspection not a quick walk-through, but an actual assessment of where the infestation is coming from and how it’s moving through your space. In Brighton Beach’s older apartment buildings, that means checking more than just the kitchen. It means looking at pipe penetrations, wall voids, the area around the boiler room if you’re in a ground-floor or basement unit, and any shared infrastructure that connects your apartment to the rest of the building. Cockroaches in a multi-unit building are rarely a single-unit problem.
From there, the treatment is matched to the species and the situation. German cockroaches the small, fast ones that spread through kitchen cabinets and appliances are treated differently than American cockroaches, which are the large waterbugs that come up through drains, especially after heavy rain pushes them out of the sewer system. Brighton Beach’s coastal flood history makes that second scenario more common here than in most Brooklyn neighborhoods, and our treatment approach accounts for that.
After the initial treatment, follow-up is part of the process. A single visit can knock the population down significantly, but in a building where the source of the infestation is a shared wall or a pipe chase that runs through multiple floors, ongoing monitoring is what keeps it from coming back. We work with both individual tenants and property managers to set up the right plan for the building, not just the unit.
Ready to get started?
Cockroach control in a coastal, high-density neighborhood like Brighton Beach requires a different approach than what works in a single-family home in the suburbs. The ocean moisture that seeps into basement apartments along the boardwalk blocks, the food waste generated by the dense restaurant corridor on Brighton Beach Avenue, and the interconnected infrastructure of six-story elevator buildings all create a pest environment that needs to be understood before it can be treated effectively.
We offer cockroach control services for both residential and commercial properties. For residents in Brighton Beach’s apartment buildings whether you’re in a rent-stabilized unit that’s been in the family for decades or a newer rental our service includes a full inspection, species identification, targeted treatment using NYS DEC Registered Materials, and documentation you can use if you need to demonstrate action to your landlord or building management. For restaurant owners and food service operators on Brighton Beach Avenue who are managing DOH compliance, we provide commercial cockroach control with treatment schedules that work around your operating hours.
We also issue Demolition Clearance Certificates to the NYC Department of Health relevant for any building undergoing renovation or demolition work in the neighborhood, where construction activity is a known driver of cockroach displacement into adjacent units. And for Brighton Beach’s large senior population, we offer a 10% senior discount on residential services because pest control should be accessible to everyone in the community, not just those with the budget to absorb a surprise expense.
In Brighton Beach, the answer usually comes down to the building itself not what you’re doing wrong. The pre-war and mid-century apartment buildings that dominate this neighborhood were built between the 1920s and 1950s, and decades of settling have created cracks in walls, gaps around plumbing, and deteriorating pipe insulation that cockroaches use to move freely between units. Your neighbor’s infestation becomes yours through a shared wall or a plumbing chase, and no amount of cleaning or store-bought spray changes that underlying reality.
The ocean proximity adds another layer. Brighton Beach sits directly on the Atlantic, and the moisture that rolls in off the water year-round keeps humidity levels in basement and ground-floor apartments consistently elevated exactly the conditions cockroaches need to thrive and reproduce. If you’ve treated your own unit and the problem keeps coming back, it’s almost certainly because the source is somewhere in the building’s shared infrastructure, not inside your four walls. That’s a building-level problem that requires a building-level approach.
In New York City, “waterbug” is the common name for the American cockroach the large, reddish-brown roach that can grow to an inch and a half or more and tends to appear near drains, in basements, and in areas with moisture. They’re not a different species from cockroaches; they are cockroaches. The name “waterbug” stuck because of how often they appear near water sources and how frequently they migrate up through drain lines and sewer systems especially after heavy rain.
In Brighton Beach, waterbugs are a particularly common complaint because the neighborhood’s coastal location and aging sewer infrastructure mean that storm events push large numbers of them out of the sewer system and into buildings at ground level. This happened after Hurricane Sandy and has happened repeatedly during heavy rain events since. German cockroaches the small, fast ones are a separate issue and are more commonly found in kitchens and around food sources. The treatment for each is different, which is why identifying the species correctly before treating is the first step, not an afterthought.
In New York City, yes cockroach infestations are the landlord’s legal responsibility to address. Under the NYC Housing Maintenance Code, a cockroach infestation is classified as a Class C violation, which is the most severe category and is considered immediately hazardous. Landlords are required to respond within 24 hours of a complaint being filed. If your landlord is not acting, you can file a complaint through 311, which triggers an HPD inspection. If an infestation is confirmed, the landlord receives a Notice of Violation with a legally mandated remediation timeline.
That said, knowing your rights and getting the problem solved quickly are two different things. If you’re waiting on your landlord and living with an active infestation in the meantime, you have the option to hire a licensed exterminator yourself and document the treatment which creates a paper trail that strengthens your position if the situation escalates. We can provide that documentation. For property managers and building owners in Brighton Beach who have already received an HPD Notice of Violation, getting a licensed, documented treatment on record is the fastest way to begin resolving the violation.
This is one of the most common questions we hear from Brighton Beach residents, and the answer is straightforward. Cockroaches live in large numbers in the city’s sewer system. When heavy rain or storm surge overwhelms the drainage infrastructure which happens regularly in Brighton Beach given its coastal flood zone designation the water pressure pushes cockroach colonies out of the sewers and into the nearest available space, which is often a basement apartment, a ground-floor unit, or a building’s utility area.
Brighton Beach’s flooding history makes this more than a theoretical concern. The neighborhood was significantly impacted by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and subsequent storm events have caused repeated flooding along the coastline. Each time it happens, the displacement of cockroaches from below-ground infrastructure into residential buildings follows. If you notice a sudden spike in cockroach activity after a storm, that’s almost certainly what’s happening and it requires treatment that addresses entry points at the building’s foundation level, not just surface spraying inside the unit.
There’s no single answer that’s honest for every situation, and anyone who gives you a guaranteed number without seeing your building first is guessing. What’s true in most cases is that a single treatment will reduce the population significantly sometimes dramatically but in a multi-unit building, one visit rarely eliminates the problem entirely. Cockroaches that survive in adjacent units, shared wall voids, or the building’s common areas will repopulate a treated unit over time if the source isn’t addressed.
In Brighton Beach’s large apartment buildings many of which have ten or more units per floor and shared elevator shafts, boiler rooms, and plumbing infrastructure the most effective approach is a building-wide treatment plan rather than treating individual units in isolation. For individual tenants, a follow-up visit after the initial treatment is standard. For property managers and co-op boards, we can set up an ongoing maintenance program that addresses the building as a whole, which is both more effective and more cost-efficient than repeated emergency treatments unit by unit.
Yes we offer a 10% senior discount on residential pest control services. Brighton Beach has one of the highest proportions of senior residents of any neighborhood in New York City, with roughly one in four residents aged 62 or older. A significant portion of those residents are long-term tenants in rent-stabilized apartments on fixed incomes, and an unexpected pest control expense can be a real burden. The discount exists because this community has been part of our service area for decades, and the pricing should reflect that.
Beyond the discount, our approach with senior clients is to communicate clearly about what the treatment involves, what materials are being used, how long to stay out of the treated area, and what to expect afterward. Chemical safety is a common concern particularly for residents with respiratory conditions or grandchildren who visit regularly and those questions deserve straight answers, not vague reassurances. If you or a family member has specific health considerations, mention them when you call. The treatment plan can be discussed and adjusted accordingly.
Local Resources
Useful Links
Other Services we provide in Brighton Beach
