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The first thing most people get wrong is assuming all cockroaches are the same problem. In Marine Park, they’re not. The small, fast ones in your kitchen are German cockroaches they breed in wall voids, behind appliances, and inside cabinet hinges. The large ones you find in the basement after a rainstorm are American cockroaches, what most people around here call waterbugs. They’re not coming in because your house is dirty. They’re coming up through floor drains, pipe penetrations, and cracks in your foundation because the sewer system under Marine Park’s streets pressurizes when it rains and they follow the moisture.
Getting rid of them isn’t about spraying the same product everywhere and hoping for the best. It’s about identifying which species you’re dealing with, where they’re harborage-ing, and what entry points are letting them in. When that’s done correctly, you stop reacting to the same problem every few months and actually get ahead of it.
For homeowners in Marine Park’s prewar brick two-families and row houses many of which are pushing 90 to 100 years old the structural reality matters too. Settled masonry, aged pipe seals, and shared walls with adjacent units all create conditions that make cockroach pressure worse and harder to resolve without someone who understands the housing stock. It’s just what 40 years of treating these specific homes teaches you.
We’ve been based at 2216 Flatbush Avenue since the business was founded which means we’re not a company that “covers” Marine Park from somewhere else. We’re a Marine Park business. Richard Kourbage Sr. built this company here, and Richard Kourbage Jr. joined in 1987. The Kourbage name is on this business, and that kind of accountability doesn’t come from a franchise or a call center.
Our team carries over 100 years of combined pest control experience, holds a consistent A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau of New York State, and applies only NYS Department of Environmental Conservation registered materials on every job. We’re fully licensed, bonded, and insured not as a checkbox, but because the homeowners and business owners along Kings Highway, Avenue U, and the residential blocks in between deserve that standard.
Whether it’s a cockroach infestation in a two-family home off Gerritsen Avenue or a commercial kitchen on the Flatbush corridor dealing with a health code issue, we’ve handled it and handled it in this specific community for a long time.
It starts with an inspection not a quick walkthrough, but an actual assessment of your home’s specific conditions. In Marine Park, that means paying attention to the basement, the floor drains, any pipe penetrations coming up from below grade, and the kitchen and bathroom harborage sites where German cockroaches typically concentrate. The age of your home matters here. An 80-year-old brick two-family on East 35th Street has different vulnerabilities than newer construction, and the inspection accounts for that.
Once the species and infestation scope are confirmed, treatment is targeted accordingly. For German cockroaches, that typically means gel bait applications and insect growth regulators placed directly in the harborage zones not aerosol sprays, which scatter colonies rather than eliminate them and have limited effectiveness against roach populations that have developed resistance to synthetic pyrethroids. For American cockroaches migrating from below, treatment focuses on the entry points: floor drains, sump areas, foundation cracks, and pipe penetrations. Both require follow-up to confirm the infestation is fully resolved.
After treatment, you’ll get clear guidance on what to expect in the days following including why you might see increased activity briefly as the product works and what we recommend for ongoing protection. For Marine Park homeowners dealing with recurring waterbug pressure from the neighborhood’s aging sewer infrastructure, a maintenance schedule isn’t overkill. It’s the only approach that actually keeps the problem from coming back every spring.
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Every cockroach pest control job we handle in Marine Park is built around what’s actually in your home not a one-size-fits-all package. The inspection is included. The species identification is included. The targeted treatment using NYS DEC registered materials is included. And the guidance you get afterward on preparation, on what to watch for, on whether a follow-up is warranted that’s included too.
For residential clients, we offer ongoing maintenance schedules on a weekly, monthly, or every-other-month basis. Given that Marine Park’s proximity to Jamaica Bay and the buried Gerritsen Creek storm sewer infrastructure creates recurring waterbug pressure that doesn’t resolve with a single treatment, a maintenance plan is often the most practical long-term answer for homeowners here. It’s also more cost-effective than calling for emergency service every time the season changes.
For commercial clients along the Flatbush Avenue and Kings Highway corridors restaurants, food service businesses, and retail establishments subject to NYC Department of Health inspections we have direct experience with health code violation remediation and the documentation requirements that come with it. We’re also licensed to issue Demolition Clearance Certificates to the NYC DOH, which is a capability most local exterminators don’t have. Seniors receive a 10% discount, which matters in a neighborhood with as many long-established homeowners as Marine Park.
Those are American cockroaches what most people in Brooklyn call waterbugs and the rain is directly connected to why they’re showing up. When heavy rainfall hits Marine Park, the sewer system and the storm infrastructure beneath the neighborhood’s streets gets pressurized. That pressure pushes cockroaches upward, and they find their way into homes through floor drains, sump pump pits, pipe penetrations, and any foundation cracks that have developed over time. It’s not a sign that your home is dirty or poorly maintained.
Marine Park has a specific layer to this problem that most people don’t know about: a portion of Gerritsen Creek was buried in a storm sewer back in 1920, and that below-grade moisture environment runs beneath residential streets in the neighborhood. Homes built over or near that buried waterway tend to have elevated basement moisture, which makes them more attractive to American cockroaches year-round not just after storms. A professional inspection can identify exactly where they’re getting in and what treatment and sealing approach makes the most sense for your specific home.
Yes, it changes everything about how they’re treated. German cockroaches are small about half an inch fast-moving, and almost always found near food and moisture sources inside the home. They live in wall voids, behind refrigerators, inside cabinet hinges, and under sinks. They breed continuously in heated interiors, which means a small problem becomes a large one quickly if it’s not addressed correctly. The right treatment for German cockroaches is targeted gel bait and insect growth regulators placed directly in their harborage zones not aerosol sprays, which scatter the colony and often make the infestation harder to resolve.
American cockroaches waterbugs are a completely different situation. They’re large, dark, and they come from outside: sewers, drains, and the below-grade moisture environments that are particularly common in Marine Park’s older housing stock. Treating them requires focusing on entry points, not just interior surfaces. Using the same approach for both species is one of the main reasons DIY products and some less thorough professional treatments fail to produce lasting results. Identifying which species you’re dealing with or whether you have both is the starting point of any treatment that’s actually going to work.
They can, and in Marine Park’s housing stock, it’s a real and common scenario. A significant portion of the neighborhood consists of semi-detached two-family homes and row houses with shared walls, shared plumbing chases, and shared utility infrastructure. Cockroaches particularly German cockroaches move through wall voids, along pipe runs, and through any gap in shared utility lines. If your neighbor has an active infestation and it goes untreated, the pressure from that colony can push individuals into adjacent units even if your home is clean and well-maintained.
This is one of the reasons a single treatment sometimes doesn’t fully resolve the problem in this type of housing. If the source of the infestation is in an adjacent unit and that unit isn’t treated, re-infestation is likely. A thorough inspection can help determine whether the activity in your home is originating internally or migrating from an adjacent source, which affects the treatment plan. In some cases, coordinating treatment across multiple units or at minimum, sealing the shared wall penetrations on your side is the most effective long-term approach.
This is one of the most common questions we get, and it’s a fair one. All treatments we perform use materials registered with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation these are tested and approved substances applied by DEC-certified technicians who understand proper placement, dosing, and application methods. Gel bait applications, which are commonly used for German cockroach infestations, are placed in targeted harborage areas inside cabinet hinges, behind appliances, under sinks not broadcast across open surfaces where children or pets would come into contact with them.
Before your appointment, you’ll receive clear preparation instructions specific to your home and treatment type. In most cases, you’ll need to vacate the treated areas for a short period after application and allow adequate ventilation. Your technician will walk you through exactly what to expect and answer any specific questions about the products being used. If you have young children, pets with specific sensitivities, or anyone in the home with respiratory conditions, mention that when you call it affects how the treatment is structured and what precautions are recommended.
Store-bought aerosol sprays have two significant limitations that most people don’t find out until after they’ve already tried them. First, German cockroach populations in New York City have developed substantial resistance to synthetic pyrethroid insecticides the active ingredient in most consumer spray products. Spraying a resistant population with a pyrethroid doesn’t eliminate it; it often just scatters the colony deeper into wall voids and harborage sites, making the infestation harder to treat afterward. Second, aerosol applications address surfaces, not the places where cockroaches actually live and breed.
Professional cockroach control uses a different chemistry and a different approach. Gel baits and insect growth regulators work by targeting the colony at its source cockroaches consume the bait, return to the harborage, and the active ingredient spreads through the population. IGRs specifically interrupt the reproductive cycle, preventing juveniles from reaching breeding age. This is why professional treatment produces results that store-bought products typically can’t match, especially for established infestations in older homes where the colony has had time to spread through wall voids and structural gaps.
Yes we offer a 10% discount for senior residents. Marine Park has a significant population of long-established homeowners, many of whom have lived in the same homes for decades and are on fixed incomes. The discount reflects the reality of who makes up a large part of this community and what it means to be a neighborhood business that’s been operating on Flatbush Avenue for over 40 years. It’s not a promotional add-on it’s a straightforward acknowledgment that the people who built this neighborhood deserve fair pricing from a company that’s been part of it since the beginning.
If you’re a senior homeowner in Marine Park dealing with a cockroach infestation whether it’s waterbugs in the basement or German cockroaches in the kitchen mention the discount when you call. We’ll apply it to your service. And if ongoing maintenance makes sense for your home given the neighborhood’s recurring pest pressure, the discount applies there as well, which can make a real difference in the cost of keeping your home protected over time.
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