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The Best Exterminators in New York

By , a features writer and media columnist at New York Magazine
Photo-Illustration: Curbed; Photos: Getty

To find the exterminators on this list, we polled a dozen savvy New Yorkers, including a city-rat scientist and a hairstylist. We found services that use ecofriendly pest-control methods and have a flawless track record of ridding apartments and buildings of pigeons, bedbugs, and mice. One highly recommended exterminator even has a board-certified entomologist on staff.

For a Less-Noxious Approach

Arrow Exterminating Company, arrowexterminating.com; 917-935-4932

Arrow was named our Best Exterminator of 2007 for its careful handling of poison pellets and noxious gasses and for its science-based methods. “It makes an inventory of a home’s residents before it starts a job (no matter what others tell you, some substances aren’t kid- and pet-friendly), deploys nature-based methods when appropriate, and, when not, uses pesticides judiciously to keep customers safe,” we wrote. “Best of all, it relies on real science to get the job done: A board-certified staff entomologist teaches workers how bugs behave so they can devise tactics that actually work. Behavioral science? No wonder the city’s Department of Transportation has relied on it to keep the Queensboro Bridge pigeon free.” It is still open, and though it no longer handles the bridge, Michael Deutsch, who worked at the company for more than a decade and is now brought on as a consultant, says that during the pandemic, “we were the ones chosen to monitor all the emergency tents for pests. We’ve been there four times a week, doing monitoring, trapping. It has been pretty exciting.”

For Rats

Black Widow Termite & Pest Control, blackwidowpest.com, 212-933-1834

A carpet-beetle infestation reported by the board president of a Park Avenue building; a major mice issue plaguing some high-profile residences near Central Park — these are a couple recent jobs taken on by Black Widow Termite & Pest Control, which we first heard about from a noted city-rat scientist (he asked to remain anonymous but named Black Widow as one of the top companies he makes referrals to). Black Widow was founded in 2003 by Rita Bonamo-Geiger, a woman unafraid to stare down “basements that even supers don’t want to go in,” according to her son Nick, who now helps manage the business. The company will field requests from individual tenants (for a base rate of $225), but Nick prefers to work with co-op boards or management companies because, as he puts it, “I can’t really solve the problem if I can’t get to the surrounding units.”

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 Ask an Exterminator

Timothy Wong, founder of M&M Pest Control in Long Island City

Illustration: Pete Gamlen

Say there’s a pest in your apartment. What should you do?
Find the access points and seal them with caulk or steel wool. Exclusion is most important. But most people don’t find all the entry points because they’re hidden behind cabinets and appliances. That’s why our exclusion experts are also carpenters — they know where the holes are.

Do home remedies work for deterring pests?
The majority don’t. People talk about essential oils keeping pests away, but no consumer would be able to buy a concentration high enough to matter. And there are a lot of gimmicks out there, like ultrasound devices. Pests dislike the high-pitched sound they make, but they get used to it. If rats and roaches were scared by loud noises, they wouldn’t be in the subway.

How worried should I be about rats coming out of the toilet?
It can happen. A lot of old residential buildings in New York City have cast-iron pipes. Over time, when they corrode, they crack, and it creates an opening. Every year, we get at least one or two calls that a rat came through the toilet.

Is there such a thing as a humane trap?
Well, what do you consider humane? Some argue that releasing rodents is best, but New York State has a law that if you catch an animal, you can’t release it too far from its habitat. If you release a mouse that’s been living in your walls into Central Park, there are predators there that he’s not used to and he’ll die within days. To me, killing them quickly is most humane, and snap traps provide the fastest death.

— Katie Arnold-Ratliff

For a 15-Minute Response Time

24/7 Pest Control NYC, 247pestcontrolnyc.com; 646-661-7415

In the midst of a mice outbreak in her Bushwick townhouse, hairstylist Jessica Gillin Googled to find 24/7 Pest Control NYC. “Frank texted me back 15 minutes later,” Gillin says. Frank, the company’s owner, sent over an employee to seal up holes with foam throughout the three floors of her space, along with the basement (for a total of $1,200; prices start at $250). When the mice proved to be persistent and kept finding ways to get through, Frank himself showed up at the townhouse free of charge. “He put metal grates around all the pipe holes for my appliances on the back wall,” Gillin says. And she hasn’t seen any mice since.

For Chloë Sevigny’s Pest Guy

MMPC, mandmpestcontrol.com; 212-219-8218

When Chloë Sevigny finds a pest in her kitchen, she calls up MMPC, as do Neil Patrick Harris and Ellen Barkin. MMPC — which, like Black Widow, is a certified M/WBE — specializes in ecofriendly services and methods, from cryonite rapid freezing to canine bedbug inspections, many of which are performed by technicians who happen to be trained carpenters, too. According to one Upper East Side client, a finance worker who spoke under condition of anonymity, the company was able to eliminate a bedbug issue that a previous top-rated company had failed to even diagnose — as the bugs were only biting one of her children, rather than the whole family, the client’s case was trickier than usual. After a series of fumigations — of both the apartment and the family’s tented belongings — “we never saw another bedbug,” the client says. She continued to have MMPC monitor her apartment monthly and set up interceptor cups to prevent any recurrences. “This was all very disruptive and expensive,” she notes, “but we wanted to have 100 percent success and move on.” (MMPC charges $175 and up, and its service includes free pest ID-ing and entomologist service, in which the pests are analyzed in a lab.)

For an Investigative Approach

Evergreen Eco Pest Control, nycpest.com; 718-762-1820

We recommended Evergreen Eco Pest Control — previously called Green Apple Pest Management— in 2015 for its tendency to “home in on the breeding source” before “dousing a pest-infested space with chemicals.” This is still very much the case. One recent client had a rash of fungus-feeding beetles on the basement floor. Evergreen discovered a hatch under an old area rug that led to a crawl space the client didn’t even know existed — the crawl space had an old-fashioned drain with running water going into gravel where gnats and beetles were breeding. “The tool we pride ourselves on most is understanding the etymology of the insect,” says owner Jesse Scaravella. (From $300.)

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