Rats / Roaches - Types of Buildings to Avoid

Just take a walk through the service halls and basement. If it's neat and well-organized, the number of vermin will be lower. Messy place, with lots of debris? Be wary.

Try and avoid any building with a food establishment in it..

Not always true, Waiter. Our first building in the city had two restaurants, and nary a roach. The second building had a clothing store and an appliance store and a massive roach infestation. It was horrifying in some lines, especially the one on top of where the garbage rested before being taken out to the curb. We now live in a building with a restaurant, and again, no roaches. The super is vigilant about keeping the basement clean and organized.

i live in a non-doorman, elevator bldg. haven't seen a roach, mouse or anything else. My bldg. has a live-in super which is what you need to look for.

Basement and ground floor apartments: avoid at all costs. Not just critters, but floods when it rains a lot.

In general, even if the BUILDING has mice galore, if your APARTMENT is mice-proofed with steel wool in every hole possible, you will be fine. But restaruants in the basement makes not that much difference, i agree. They find you wherever you are, since we have food and garbage.

I live in a ground floor apt and haven't had any problems. Just depends on the building. I agree with the clean basement and live in super.

Avoid 133 W 22nd, if you don't like rats

most buildings allow one dog or cat. that's all.

jason10006...if the bldg. has mice than your apartment will have them...you probably don't see them..adopt a cat and you'll find many mice.

Right out of college, I lived in a 3rd floor walk-up above a chinese restaurant that got shut down for awhile for health violations... Never saw mice or roaches, guess I got pretty lucky. Our next door neighbor was a prostitution ring/house/whatever you call it. One of them got busted by the cops one time, but they continued to do business as usual about a week later. Wall street types at all hours of the night. Most annoying was when they would accidentally ring our apartment at 4am... it's the doorbell painted in pink! Not the one below it!

This was right in Times Square, no mice or roaches though!

dubs... sorry for ringing your doorbell at 4am..... my bad...hard to tell pink from black in that lighting

I did the best in a building with trash outside of the building. My first apartment was next to the trash chute (BAD IDEA).

I live in a doorman building, and there is a huge roach problem in the building. I really don't know why. Before you move into any apartment you should bomb it, put down combat and boric acid in any open corner in the kitchen. I have never lived in an apartment in NYC that did not have roaches, if you see one there is a hundred behind your walls. Check the dishwasher and smell it, roaches are a huge problem in dishwashers and almost impossible to get rid of. I have had to rip open the guts of dishwasher to get rid of the nest.

If you are really anal, which I am this is what you do:

Chalk every single hole you can find in your apartment especially the kitchen. Make sure no roaches can get in or out of your apartments. This is the most important step you can take.

Don't leave any standing water overnight, dry your sink completely or fill it with soapy water.

Take out your trash every night.

Feed your pets on a schedule and don't leave their dishes lying around. Their water bowls should be slightly elevated off the ground to avoid ants too.

Spray the front of your door with some kind of pest repellent like Raid. Do this every few months. If you have a huge gap underneath your door put a towel under it at night. I've seen a roaches in hall ways run into apts this way.

Lay down combat all over your kitchen and under appliances and remember to change them.

If you can do this your whole building can have an infestation and it won't come near you.

anybody get infested with Gremlins..............?