Hear from Our Customers
You stop waking up to roaches on the counter. You stop worrying about what your kids are breathing in at night. That’s not a small thing cockroach allergens are a documented trigger for childhood asthma, and in dense Bronx neighborhoods like Fordham, where families share walls and plumbing stacks with dozens of other units, the allergen load inside an infested apartment is real and measurable. Getting rid of the infestation isn’t just about the bugs. It’s about the air quality in the rooms where your family sleeps.
The other thing that changes is the cycle. Most people in Fordham have already spent money on sprays from the bodega or the dollar store on Fordham Road. Those products scatter the colony they don’t eliminate it. German cockroaches, which are the most common species in this neighborhood’s apartment kitchens, have developed resistance to the synthetic pyrethroid sprays sold over the counter. Spraying them sends them deeper into the walls and into neighboring units. Professional treatment targets them where they actually live: inside plumbing voids, under appliances, in the harborage sites that a can of Raid will never reach.
When the treatment is done right, you’re not just buying relief for a few weeks. You’re breaking the reproduction cycle, sealing the entry points, and addressing the building-level dynamics that made the infestation possible in the first place. That’s what a real solution looks like in a five-story prewar walk-up off the Grand Concourse.
We’ve been serving all five boroughs of New York City for over 40 years. That includes the Bronx the prewar six-story apartment buildings along Jerome Avenue, the mixed-use corridors near Fordham Road, the basement utility rooms and shared plumbing chases that make cockroach control in this neighborhood genuinely different from anywhere else. We’re a family-owned business, founded by Richard Kourbage Sr. and still family-operated today. Not a national chain. Not a franchise following a corporate script from out of state.
Our team collectively brings more than 100 years of pest control experience to every job. That matters in a neighborhood like Fordham, where the building stock was constructed between 1900 and 1940 and where structural conditions create pest challenges that a first-year technician simply won’t recognize. We’re fully licensed by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, bonded, insured, and hold a consistent A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau of New York State. When we show up, you know exactly who you’re dealing with.
It starts with an inspection. Not a quick walk-through a real look at the specific conditions in your unit or building. In Fordham’s older apartment stock, that means checking the plumbing walls behind the kitchen and bathroom, the gaps around pipe penetrations, the space under the refrigerator, the areas around the water heater. German cockroaches don’t hide in the open. They live inside the structure, and finding their harborage sites is the first thing that separates a treatment that works from one that doesn’t.
Once the inspection is done, we apply treatment based on what’s actually there. That typically means professional-grade gel bait placed inside harborage sites, crack-and-crevice dust applications in wall voids and utility penetrations, and insect growth regulators that interrupt the reproduction cycle so newly hatched nymphs don’t repopulate the area after the adults are gone. Every material we use is registered with the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation relevant in a neighborhood where a significant portion of households include children under 15 and where safety around kids is a real concern, not a marketing line.
After the initial treatment, follow-up matters. Cockroach egg cases are resistant to pesticides, and in a multi-unit building, reinfestation from neighboring units is a genuine risk. We offer flexible maintenance schedules monthly, every other month, or more frequent if the situation calls for it so that newly hatched populations get caught before they re-establish. In Fordham’s building stock, that follow-up isn’t optional. It’s part of what makes the treatment actually hold.
Ready to get started?
Cockroach pest control in Fordham isn’t a one-size situation. The neighborhood has three species showing up regularly German cockroaches in apartment kitchens and bathrooms, American cockroaches (the large ones NYC residents call waterbugs) coming up through basement drains and sewer connections, and Oriental cockroaches in damp utility rooms and building basements. We identify which species you’re dealing with before any treatment goes down, because applying the wrong method doesn’t just fail it can make things worse.
For residential clients in Fordham’s apartment buildings, treatment focuses on harborage elimination, crack-and-crevice application, and building-level entry point assessment not just surface spraying in the kitchen. For commercial clients along the Fordham Road corridor, where a cockroach sighting during a NYC Department of Health inspection can mean a violation or a closure, we understand the urgency and the compliance stakes. We can also issue Demolition Clearance Certificates to the NYC Department of Health relevant as the Fordham Landing development near the Harlem River waterfront continues to bring new construction and the pest displacement that comes with it.
We also offer a 10% discount for senior residents. In a neighborhood where rent burden is real and household budgets are tight, that’s worth asking about when you call.
In most Fordham apartment buildings, the infestation isn’t limited to your unit it’s living inside the building’s shared infrastructure. German cockroaches travel through plumbing chases, electrical conduits, and wall voids between units. If your neighbor’s apartment is infested and untreated, cockroaches will continue migrating into your space regardless of what you apply inside your own kitchen. This is the structural reality of five- and six-story prewar buildings along Jerome Avenue and throughout the neighborhood, and it’s why single-unit DIY treatment almost always fails here.
Professional treatment addresses the harborage sites inside the structure not just the surfaces you can see. Gel bait placed inside wall voids and around pipe penetrations targets the colony at the source. Insect growth regulators interrupt the reproduction cycle so that egg cases already in the walls don’t just repopulate the space after the adults are gone. Follow-up visits are part of the process for exactly this reason cockroach eggs are pesticide-resistant, and a single treatment rarely ends a building-level infestation permanently.
Every product we apply is registered with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. That’s not a marketing claim it’s a regulatory requirement that licensed commercial pesticide applicators in New York must meet, and it means every material has been evaluated for safety and approved for use in residential settings. In a neighborhood like Fordham, where roughly one in five residents is a child under 15, this matters and it gets asked a lot.
The application method also affects safety. Professional gel bait and crack-and-crevice treatments are placed inside harborage sites behind appliances, inside wall voids, around pipe penetrations not sprayed across open surfaces where children and pets make contact. This targeted approach reduces exposure significantly compared to aerosol sprays, which coat surfaces indiscriminately and linger in the air. Your technician will walk you through any specific precautions before the treatment starts, including re-entry timing if needed.
“Waterbug” is the name New Yorkers use for the American cockroach the large, reddish-brown roach that tends to appear in bathrooms, basements, and near drains. They’re not a different insect. They’re a cockroach species that lives in sewer systems and enters buildings through floor drains, basement utility connections, and gaps in plumbing infrastructure. In Fordham, where building sewer connections are aging and heavy rain events can push American cockroaches up through basement drains, seeing one in your bathroom doesn’t necessarily mean your apartment is the source.
German cockroaches the small, fast, tan-colored ones found in kitchens are a separate species and a separate problem. They don’t come from outside. They spread from unit to unit through shared building infrastructure and reproduce rapidly indoors. Both species require different treatment strategies, which is why identifying what you’re actually dealing with during the inspection is the first step, not an afterthought.
Under New York City’s Housing Maintenance Code, the legal obligation to maintain a rental apartment free of pest infestation falls on the building owner, not the tenant in most circumstances. Section 27-2018 of the NYC Administrative Code requires landlords to address pest conditions, and tenants can file complaints with the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) if a landlord fails to act. HPD can issue violations and fines for unresolved infestations.
That said, the legal framework doesn’t solve the practical problem of living with an active infestation while waiting for landlord action. Many Fordham residents especially in buildings where management response is slow or inconsistent choose to hire a professional exterminator to get the situation under control on their own timeline. If you go that route, keep documentation of the infestation and any communication with your landlord, because you may have grounds to recover the cost depending on your lease terms and the circumstances.
There’s no universal answer, but in Fordham’s prewar apartment buildings, a single treatment is rarely the end of the story. German cockroach egg cases called oothecae are resistant to pesticides. A thorough first treatment will eliminate adult cockroaches and nymphs, but eggs already deposited in wall voids and harborage sites will hatch in the weeks that follow. In a multi-unit building where neighboring units may be untreated, newly hatched nymphs can repopulate from adjacent spaces within a matter of weeks.
Most situations in this type of building benefit from at least one follow-up treatment, and ongoing maintenance on a monthly or every-other-month schedule is the most reliable way to keep populations from re-establishing. The severity of the infestation, the number of units involved, and how long the problem has been present all affect the timeline. Your technician will give you a realistic assessment after the inspection not a one-size answer.
Yes we offer a 10% discount for senior residents. Fordham has a meaningful population of older renters living on fixed incomes in a neighborhood where rent burden is already high. The decision to call a professional exterminator instead of buying another can of spray isn’t always easy when the budget is tight, and the discount reflects an understanding of that reality. It’s worth mentioning when you call so it gets applied from the start.
Beyond the discount, the value calculation for professional treatment in this neighborhood is worth thinking through clearly. A German cockroach infestation that goes untreated doesn’t stay the same it grows. The longer it persists, the more units it can spread to, the more allergen load builds up in the apartment, and the harder and more expensive it becomes to eliminate. Getting ahead of it with professional treatment, even at a cost, is almost always less expensive than managing a severe, long-standing infestation months down the road.
Local Resources
Useful Links
Other Services we provide in Fordham
