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You stop second-guessing every flicker of movement in your kitchen at night. You stop checking behind the stove before you cook. That kind of relief sounds small until you’ve been living without it for weeks or months.
For Flatlands homeowners, the cockroach problem usually isn’t just one problem. It’s two. German cockroaches the small, fast ones are nesting inside your walls, under your appliances, and inside cabinet hinges. They breed fast and they don’t leave on their own. Then there are the waterbugs. American cockroaches that come up through floor drains and basement pipes, especially after a heavy rain pushes them up through the sewer lines that run beneath one of Brooklyn’s lowest-lying neighborhoods. These are two different species with two different behaviors, and they need two different approaches.
What professional cockroach control gives you that a can of spray never will is access to the harborage sites inside your walls, behind your appliances, and in the utility voids where roaches actually live. Store-bought products reach surfaces. Our trained technicians reach the source. In a neighborhood full of mid-century brick homes with aging plumbing and decades of settled foundations, that distinction is everything. You get your home back. That’s the outcome.
We were founded by Richard Kourbage Sr. and have been family-owned and in continuous operation for over 40 years. Our office sits at 2216 Flatbush Avenue in Marine Park the same Flatbush Avenue that runs along Flatlands’ southwestern edge. We’re not a company dispatching technicians into an unfamiliar neighborhood. We’re people who know these streets, these houses, and exactly what pest pressure looks like in southeastern Brooklyn.
Our team collectively brings more than 100 years of hands-on pest control experience to every job. We hold an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau of New York State, and every treatment uses only NYS Department of Environmental Conservation Registered Materials applied by fully certified technicians. We are fully licensed, bonded, and insured all three, not just one or two.
In a neighborhood like Flatlands, where families have lived in the same homes for decades, our track record isn’t built through advertising. It’s built one job at a time.
It starts with a thorough inspection. Before anything is applied, one of our technicians walks the property and identifies what species you’re dealing with, where they’re coming from, and what’s allowing them to stay. In Flatlands, that usually means checking floor drains and basement entry points for waterbug activity, and inspecting the kitchen, bathrooms, and wall voids for German cockroach harborage. The two problems often coexist in the same home, and treating one without addressing the other leaves the job half done.
From there, treatment is targeted not a blanket spray across every surface. Gel bait is applied in the areas where cockroaches actually feed and nest. Residual materials are used in voids, along baseboards, and in the specific entry points identified during the inspection. In older Flatlands homes with aging pipe collars and settled masonry, sealing those entry points is part of the conversation too, because treatment without exclusion just delays the next infestation.
After the initial treatment, we’ll walk you through what to expect including a realistic timeline for activity to decrease and what follow-up looks like if needed. You won’t be left wondering what was done or whether it worked. The process is straightforward, and so is our communication.
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Our cockroach pest control service in Flatlands covers both species that residents here deal with most German cockroaches and American cockroaches (waterbugs). That’s not the case with every provider. Some operators show up with a one-size-fits-all approach that misses the seasonal waterbug migration entirely, which means you’ll be calling again in three weeks when the next rainstorm drives them back up through your basement drain.
Every service we provide uses only NYS DEC Registered Materials regulated, tested substances that are safe for use in homes with children and pets when applied correctly by a certified technician. With 25% of Flatlands’ population under 17, this matters. You shouldn’t have to choose between getting rid of roaches and feeling safe in your own home.
We also work with landlords and property managers in the area including owners of the two-family homes and small multi-unit buildings that make up much of Flatlands’ residential stock. If you’ve received an HPD complaint or you’re managing a building where the infestation has spread between units, we understand the NYC Housing Maintenance Code obligations and what it takes to bring a property into compliance. A 10% senior discount is available for qualifying residents ask when you call.
Waterbugs American cockroaches aren’t coming from inside your home the way German cockroaches are. They’re migrating up from the sewer system through floor drains, pipe penetrations, and basement utility openings. In Flatlands, this is a structural issue tied directly to the neighborhood’s geography. The area sits at or near sea level, and the sewer infrastructure beneath it gets overwhelmed during heavy rain events, pushing cockroaches upward into the building envelope. Treating what’s already inside without addressing the entry points is why the problem keeps coming back.
A proper treatment plan for waterbug activity in Flatlands includes identifying every drain and utility opening that’s giving them access, applying residual materials at those points, and where possible recommending physical exclusion measures like drain covers and pipe collar sealing. If your current treatment hasn’t included those steps, that’s likely why you’re still seeing them after every storm.
It matters a lot, because they behave differently and require different treatment approaches. German cockroaches are small about half an inch tan to light brown, and almost always found near food and moisture sources like kitchens and bathrooms. They nest inside appliances, cabinet hinges, and wall voids, and they reproduce extremely fast. A small German cockroach problem can become a serious infestation within weeks if it’s not addressed at the source.
Waterbugs are significantly larger often an inch and a half or more dark reddish-brown, and they typically appear one or two at a time, usually near drains or in basements. They’re not nesting inside your home the same way German cockroaches are; they’re entering from outside through the sewer system. Many Flatlands residents deal with both at the same time without realizing it, which is why a thorough inspection before any treatment is applied is essential. Treating for one without addressing the other will leave part of the problem unsolved.
Yes when it’s done correctly by a licensed, certified technician using regulated materials. We apply only NYS Department of Environmental Conservation Registered Materials, which means every product used has been reviewed and approved under New York State’s pesticide regulatory framework. These aren’t off-the-shelf sprays. They’re professional-grade products applied in targeted locations inside wall voids, behind appliances, along baseboards not broadcast across open surfaces where children and pets spend time.
That said, you’ll typically be asked to keep children and pets out of treated areas for a specific period after the service, and our technician will tell you exactly how long and which areas are affected before they leave. In a neighborhood where a quarter of residents are under 17, this is one of the most common questions we field and it’s a reasonable one. The goal is to eliminate the infestation without creating a new concern in its place.
Absolutely, and it’s one of the most frustrating aspects of cockroach infestations in multi-unit buildings. Cockroaches move through shared wall voids, plumbing chases, and utility conduits none of which respect the boundary between your unit and the one next door or below. In Flatlands, where two-family homes and small multi-unit buildings make up a significant portion of the housing stock, this is a genuinely common scenario. You can maintain a spotless apartment and still end up with a cockroach problem because of what’s happening in an adjacent unit or a shared basement.
If you’re a renter, it’s worth knowing that under the NYC Housing Maintenance Code, your landlord is legally responsible for maintaining pest-free conditions in the building. You have the right to file an HPD complaint if the issue isn’t addressed. If you’re a property owner or landlord, addressing the infestation across all affected units not just the one where it’s been reported is both the legally sound and practically effective approach. Treating one unit while ignoring adjacent ones typically results in the roaches redistributing rather than being eliminated.
There are a few reasons, and they’re all connected. First, aerosol sprays and over-the-counter foggers work on contact meaning they only affect the cockroaches they physically reach. The majority of a German cockroach population at any given time is hiding inside walls, behind appliances, and in other harborage sites that a spray can never penetrate. You’re killing a fraction of the population while the rest continues breeding undisturbed.
Second, cockroach populations particularly German cockroaches, which are the dominant indoor species in Brooklyn have developed significant resistance to many of the active ingredients found in consumer products over decades of widespread use. Professional-grade gel baits work differently: cockroaches consume the bait, return to the colony, and the active ingredient spreads through contact and secondary exposure. It reaches the population you can’t see, which is the population that matters. That’s a fundamentally different mechanism than a spray, and it’s why professional cockroach control in Flatlands produces results that store-bought products consistently don’t.
Yes we offer a 10% discount for senior residents. Flatlands has a meaningful population of long-term homeowners who have lived in the same homes for 30, 40, sometimes 50 years. Many of them are on fixed incomes, and the cost of professional pest control is a real consideration. The senior discount is a straightforward way we acknowledge that reality for the community we’ve been serving from our Flatbush Avenue office for over four decades.
If you or someone in your household qualifies, just mention it when you call. There’s no complicated process you ask, we apply it. It’s also worth asking about ongoing maintenance options if you’re dealing with recurring waterbug activity tied to Flatlands’ seasonal drainage patterns. A one-time treatment handles the immediate problem, but a maintenance plan can help prevent the next infestation before it starts, which tends to be a more cost-effective approach over time for homeowners in this part of Brooklyn.
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