If bed bugs keep coming back after treatment, your building's layout may be the real problem. Here's what NYC residents need to know.
You woke up with bites. You stripped the bed, checked the mattress, maybe even bought a spray from the hardware store. And still — they’re back. If that sounds familiar, you’re not dealing with a willpower problem or a cleanliness problem. You’re dealing with a building problem. In Brooklyn brownstones, Queens apartments, and Manhattan co-ops, bed bugs don’t stay in one unit. They move. And until someone treats the infestation the way NYC buildings actually work, it’s going to keep happening. Here’s what you need to understand before you make another call.
New York City has ranked among the top five most bed bug-infested cities in America for over a decade. That’s not a coincidence — it’s a direct result of how this city is built and how people move through it. Dense housing, constant travel, a subway system used by millions daily, and a short-term rental market that turns over hotel rooms and Airbnb units at a staggering rate create endless opportunities for bed bugs to spread.
But the biggest factor — the one most people don’t think about until it’s too late — is the architecture itself. Brooklyn’s brownstones and row houses, Queens’ attached dwellings, Manhattan’s pre-war apartment buildings: these aren’t just homes that happen to be near each other. They share walls, floors, ceilings, electrical conduits, and plumbing. Bed bugs don’t need a door. They need a gap, and gaps are everywhere.
Yes — and in NYC’s housing stock, this is the rule, not the exception. Bed bugs are flat enough to squeeze through a crack the width of a credit card. In a Brooklyn brownstone, that means they can move between units through wall voids, behind baseboards, through electrical outlets, and along plumbing runs. A single infested unit in Park Slope or Crown Heights can become a building-wide problem within weeks if it isn’t addressed properly.
This is the single most important thing to understand about bed bug treatment in New York City: treating only the unit where bugs were reported almost always fails. Not because the treatment itself was bad, but because the source — or the ongoing reinfestation — is coming from somewhere else in the building. The bugs get killed in your apartment, and two weeks later, more come through the wall from next door.
This is also why so many people feel like they’ve wasted money on a treatment that “didn’t work.” In many cases, the treatment did work — on that unit, on that day. But without addressing adjacent units, the problem isn’t solved. It’s just paused.
In Queens neighborhoods like Jackson Heights, Astoria, and Flushing, where large apartment complexes are common, the same dynamic plays out at an even larger scale. In Manhattan, the challenge is compounded by co-op board requirements, elevator access logistics, and the sheer density of people moving in and out of buildings constantly. West Harlem consistently tops the list of Manhattan neighborhoods with the most bed bug reports — and the building type there is exactly what you’d expect: multi-story, multi-unit, shared everything.
Treating bed bugs in Brooklyn, Manhattan, or Queens requires someone who understands this. Not just the biology of the bug, but the architecture of the building and the legal landscape that governs who’s responsible for what.
This is one of the most common questions we hear, and the honest answer is: it depends on the infestation, the building, and what you’re trying to accomplish. Neither method is universally better. Both have real advantages, and both have real limitations.
Heat treatment works by raising the temperature in the treated space to a level that kills bed bugs and their eggs at every stage of the life cycle. It’s thorough, it doesn’t require you to bag every piece of clothing or dismantle every piece of furniture, and it can reach hiding spots that chemical sprays can’t. For a heavily infested Brooklyn brownstone apartment or a cluttered Manhattan studio, heat treatment is often the most effective single-visit option. That said, it requires proper equipment, careful temperature monitoring throughout the space, and a technician who knows what they’re doing. Not all heat treatment is the same.
Chemical treatment uses DEC-registered pesticides applied to targeted areas — baseboards, furniture joints, wall voids, electrical outlets — where bed bugs hide and travel. It typically requires more preparation from the resident beforehand, and it may require follow-up visits to catch newly hatched eggs. For smaller or earlier-stage infestations, chemical treatment can be highly effective and more cost-efficient. For multi-unit buildings in Queens or Brooklyn, it’s often used in combination with heat to ensure full coverage across shared spaces.
The right answer depends on your specific situation — the size of the infestation, how many units are involved, what type of building you’re in, and what your timeline looks like. Anyone who tells you one method is always the answer isn’t giving you the full picture. We offer both, and we choose based on what the infestation actually calls for — not what’s easiest for us to schedule.
New York State law also requires that bed bug treatment in apartments be performed only by a pest control professional licensed by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. That’s not a technicality — it’s a protection for you. An unlicensed operator using non-registered materials can make an infestation worse, scatter bugs into new hiding spots, and leave you with no legal recourse.
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A thorough bed bug inspection isn’t just a technician glancing at your mattress. It’s a systematic walk-through of every place bugs are known to hide — furniture joints, behind baseboards, inside electrical outlets, along the seams of upholstered furniture, behind picture frames, and yes, inside electronics. In a multi-unit building, a proper inspection also considers what’s happening in adjacent units, because that context changes the treatment plan entirely.
What comes after the inspection matters just as much. Any company that promises to solve a bed bug infestation in a single visit without first understanding the full scope of the problem is overselling. The NYC Department of Health specifically recommends seeking companies that provide a warranty and a follow-up visit — because bed bug treatment done right is a process, not a one-time event.
This question causes more confusion — and more delay — than almost anything else in the bed bug process. Here’s the short version: in New York City, landlords are generally required by law to address bed bug infestations in rental units. They’re also required under Local Law 69 of 2017 to file annual Bedbug Annual Reports with the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development, disclosing the bed bug history of every unit in the building. In just the first five months of 2024, HPD sent more than 50,000 violation notices to building owners for failing to file those reports. That number tells you how widespread the compliance problem is.
But here’s the practical reality: knowing your landlord is responsible doesn’t mean the problem gets solved quickly. Many landlords delay. Some hire the cheapest operator they can find, which often means a single-unit treatment that doesn’t address adjacent units and fails within weeks. While you’re waiting and hoping, the infestation grows.
If you’re a renter dealing with bed bugs in Brooklyn, Manhattan, or Queens, you have rights — and knowing them matters. If you’re a landlord or property manager, you have legal obligations that extend beyond just calling someone. Annual reporting, adjacent unit inspection, and working with a DEC-licensed professional aren’t optional in New York City. They’re the law.
We work with both tenants and property managers across Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan. We understand the compliance side of this — the HPD requirements, the DEC licensing rules, the documentation that protects you legally — because we’ve been navigating it in this city since 1971. That’s not something a newer company or a national franchise can replicate with a checklist.
The NYC pest control market has a lot of operators in it. Some are excellent. Some are not licensed. Some will show up, spray something, hand you a receipt, and disappear — and you won’t know the treatment failed until the bites come back three weeks later. Knowing what to look for before you hire someone can save you a significant amount of money and frustration.
Start with licensing. New York State requires that any professional treating a residential apartment for bed bugs hold a valid NYSDEC pest control license. Ask for it. A legitimate company will have no problem providing it. We use only DEC-registered materials and meet every New York State licensing requirement — that’s not a selling point we invented, it’s a baseline we’ve maintained for over fifty years.
Look at the track record. Not just the star rating, but the substance behind it. How long has the company been operating? Are there reviews that describe specific problems solved, not just generic praise? We’ve maintained an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau for over 35 years — that’s a verifiable record, not a marketing badge. Our technicians bring more than 100 years of collective pest control experience to every job, and our roots in Brooklyn go back to 1971.
Ask whether they inspect adjacent units in multi-family buildings. If the answer is no — or if they don’t even raise the question — that tells you something important about whether they understand how bed bugs actually move in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens buildings.
Ask about follow-up. A company that guarantees a single visit will solve everything is either inexperienced or not being straight with you. We answer calls 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and we guarantee an appointment within 48 hours — with same-day service available in many cases. Because we know that when you’re dealing with this, waiting a week isn’t acceptable.
Finally, ask whether they offer both heat and chemical treatment options. A company that only offers one method is making your decision for you before they’ve even seen your apartment. The right treatment depends on the infestation — and that’s a determination that should be made after a thorough inspection, not before.
Bed bugs in a Brooklyn brownstone, a Queens apartment building, or a Manhattan co-op are not the same problem as bed bugs in a suburban house. The buildings are connected. The bugs move. And a treatment plan that ignores that reality is going to fail — not because pest control doesn’t work, but because the wrong approach was applied to the wrong problem.
Effective treatment means inspecting the full scope of the infestation, choosing the right method for the specific situation, addressing adjacent units when the building type calls for it, and following up to make sure the job is actually done. That’s the standard, and it’s the one we’ve held ourselves to since we started doing this work in Brooklyn in 1971.
If you’re dealing with bed bugs — or if you’re a property manager trying to stay ahead of HPD compliance requirements — Kingsway Exterminating Company is ready to help. Reach out by phone any time, day or night, and we’ll get you scheduled fast.
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