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Termites don’t take breaks. A single colony feeds around the clock, and in Elmhurst’s early-20th-century frame houses and attached rowhouses, they have decades of untreated wood to work through. Most homeowners don’t find out until a renovation uncovers the damage or until swarmers start showing up near windows every spring. By that point, the colony has usually been active for five years or more.
When termite control is done right, that cycle stops. The structural wood in your Elmhurst home stops being a food source. You stop wondering whether that soft spot in the floor is something serious. And if you’re a property owner with tenants, you stop carrying the legal exposure that comes with an unresolved infestation in a rental unit.
Elmhurst’s housing density makes this more complicated than it sounds. In a rowhouse block or a multi-family building near Junction Boulevard, a colony in the shared soil beneath your foundation doesn’t stay your problem alone it migrates. Treating one unit without addressing the surrounding soil is temporary at best. Real termite control here means targeting the colony underground, not just the activity you can see.
We were founded in 1971 by Richard Kourbage Sr. His sons Richard Jr. and Charles run the company today. That’s over 50 years of the same family, the same name, and the same accountability on every job across the five boroughs including right here in Elmhurst and the surrounding Queens neighborhoods.
Our team collectively brings more than 100 years of combined pest control experience to the field. That’s not a marketing number it means the technician walking through your Elmhurst home has seen every variation of subterranean termite activity that Queens can produce, from a single-family Colonial on a residential side street to a multi-unit building near LeFrak City. We know what to look for and where to look.
We hold an A+ BBB accreditation that goes back to 1989, apply only NYS DEC-registered materials, and guarantee an appointment within two business days with same-day inspections available. When you call, a real person picks up, 24 hours a day.
It starts with an inspection. One of our technicians walks your property foundation perimeter, basement or crawl space, window frames, door frames, and any wood that makes contact with masonry or soil. In Elmhurst’s older housing stock, that means paying close attention to sill plates, floor joists, and the areas around plumbing penetrations where moisture tends to collect. These are the entry points Eastern Subterranean Termites exploit most consistently in Queens homes.
If there’s an active infestation, you’ll get a clear explanation of what was found, where it is, and what treatment makes sense for your specific property. For many Elmhurst homes especially rowhouses and multi-family buildings a termite baiting system is the most effective approach. Rather than just treating the surface, we place bait stations in the soil around the structure. Termite workers carry the treatment back to the colony, which eliminates the problem at the source. For properties involved in a real estate transaction, we also provide Wood Destroying Organism (WDO) inspection reports that meet FHA and VA lender requirements.
Spring is when termite swarm season peaks in Queens typically March through May so if you’ve spotted winged insects near your foundation or inside the house after a warm rain, don’t wait. That’s the colony telling you it’s already well-established.
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Every termite job we do starts with a thorough inspection not a quick walkthrough, but a real assessment of your foundation, framing, and any wood-to-soil contact points that are common in Elmhurst’s early-1900s construction. From there, treatment is matched to what your property actually needs, not a one-size-fits-all package.
For active infestations, we use termite baiting systems and liquid barrier treatments depending on the structure and severity. Bait systems are particularly effective for the attached and semi-attached housing common throughout Elmhurst, because they address the colony in the soil not just the termites that have already entered the building. Liquid barrier treatments, when applied correctly, provide protection that lasts five to ten years. Both methods use only NYS DEC-registered materials, which matters in a neighborhood as densely populated as Elmhurst, where you’re often treating in close proximity to neighboring units, shared yards, and tenant-occupied spaces.
We also handle Wood Destroying Organism (WDO) inspection reports for real estate transactions a requirement for many FHA and VA loans on Elmhurst properties, where row houses regularly trade between $950,000 and $1.5 million. And if you’ve received a NYC Department of Health pest-related citation on a rental property, we have direct experience resolving those violations with the documentation inspectors require. Carpenter ants and powder post beetles are also treated, since Elmhurst’s aging wood-framed buildings often harbor more than one wood-destroying pest at a time.
It’s one of the most common questions we get, and it’s worth knowing the difference before you call anyone. Flying ants and termite swarmers look similar at a glance, but there are a few clear tells. Termites have straight antennae, a thick waist with no visible pinch, and wings that are equal in length. Flying ants have bent antennae, a pinched waist, and front wings that are noticeably longer than the back wings.
In Elmhurst, termite swarmers typically appear between March and May often on a warm day after rain, near windows, door frames, or basement openings. If you’re finding discarded wings in small piles on window sills or along baseboards, that’s a strong indicator of termites, not ants. Swarmers themselves don’t cause structural damage, but their presence means there’s already an established colony nearby and that colony has likely been active for several years. Don’t sweep them up and move on. Call for an inspection while the evidence is fresh.
Yes and this is one of the most important things to understand about termite control in Elmhurst specifically. Eastern Subterranean Termites nest underground and travel through the soil to reach wood. In an attached rowhouse or multi-family building, the colony doesn’t recognize property lines. It moves laterally through shared soil, which means a colony established under one unit can and often does spread to adjacent units over time.
This is why treating only one unit in a rowhouse block is usually not enough. A thorough treatment needs to account for the full soil zone beneath and around the affected structure, and ideally coordinate with neighboring property owners when possible. We have experience handling exactly this kind of multi-unit termite situation in Elmhurst and across Queens, and we’ll give you an honest assessment of what scope of treatment is actually needed not just what’s easiest to sell.
A termite inspection is a physical walkthrough of your property inside and out. Our technician checks the foundation perimeter, basement or crawl space, window and door frames, visible floor joists, and any area where wood comes into contact with masonry, soil, or moisture. In Elmhurst’s older homes, that often includes sill plates set directly on brick foundations and areas around aging plumbing that create hidden moisture pockets both common entry points for subterranean termites.
For a typical single-family or two-family home in Elmhurst, an inspection takes roughly 45 minutes to an hour. Larger multi-family buildings take longer. At the end, you’ll get a clear explanation of what was found or what wasn’t found and what the next steps are. If you need a formal Wood Destroying Organism (WDO) report for a real estate transaction, we can provide that documentation as part of the inspection process. Same-day inspections are frequently available, so you don’t have to sit on a concern for days waiting for someone to show up.
In almost every case, no. Standard homeowner’s insurance policies in New York and across the country classify termite damage as a maintenance issue, not a sudden or accidental loss. That means the cost of repairing structural damage caused by termites falls entirely on you as the property owner. Repairs can run anywhere from $3,000 for minor damage to well over $10,000 when floor joists, sill plates, or load-bearing framing are involved.
This is one of the most important financial realities for Elmhurst homeowners to understand, especially given what properties are worth here. A rowhouse in Elmhurst can sell for $950,000 to $1.5 million and a termite infestation that goes untreated long enough can reduce a property’s value by roughly 20%. The cost of a professional termite treatment and ongoing monitoring is a fraction of what structural repairs and property devaluation would cost. Getting ahead of it is always the less expensive path.
It depends on the treatment method. Liquid barrier treatments, when properly applied around the foundation of a Queens home, typically provide protection for five to ten years. Termite baiting systems work differently they’re designed to be monitored on an ongoing basis, with our technicians checking bait stations periodically to confirm colony activity has been eliminated and to replenish bait as needed.
For Elmhurst properties particularly rowhouses and multi-family buildings where soil is shared with neighboring structures ongoing monitoring through a baiting system often makes the most sense as a long-term strategy. It gives you continuous visibility into whether termite pressure is returning, rather than waiting until you see physical signs again. We’ll walk you through which approach fits your specific property and what the follow-up schedule looks like before any treatment begins, so there are no surprises.
A NYC Department of Health pest-related violation is a legal notice that requires documented remediation not just a treatment, but proof that the problem was properly addressed. Inspectors typically want to see a licensed pest control company’s treatment records, the materials used, and in some cases, follow-up documentation confirming the infestation has been resolved.
We have direct experience handling NYC DOH citation resolution for property owners in Elmhurst and across Queens, including the large stock of multi-family rental buildings in this area. We know what documentation the city requires and how to provide it correctly the first time, which matters when you’re working against a compliance deadline. Under NYC Local Law 55, landlords are also required to maintain buildings free of pest infestations particularly in units with children so addressing a termite violation quickly isn’t just about avoiding fines. It’s about meeting your legal obligations to tenants. Call us and we’ll walk you through exactly what the process looks like for your specific property.
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