Rodent Removal in Houston, TX
Roof rats walk in along the oaks and the utility lines, Norway rats come up from the bayou and the crawl space, and the noise starts after dark. Licensed contractors trap them, seal the way in and restore the attic.
- Free inspection and itemized quote
- Line answered 24 hours a day
- TDA-licensed contractors only
What is making the noise
Three rodents account for nearly every Houston call, and where and when you hear them narrows it down before anyone drives out.
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Roof rats
The attic species in Houston. UF/IFAS describes the roof rat as arboreal, moving along branches, wires and trunks, so a live oak limb over the roof or a cable drop at the fascia is its road. It nests above ground and its droppings are a quarter to half an inch long with pointed ends.
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Norway rats
The ground species: burrows at slab edges, crawl spaces under pier-and-beam houses, storm drains and the banks of Buffalo, White Oak, Brays, Sims and Greens bayous, which carry them across the city. UF/IFAS puts the rat-proofing standard at a quarter inch for either rat.
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House mice
The most numerous rodent in Houston homes and a smaller share of paid work. Droppings under a quarter inch, activity in cabinets, pantries and appliance voids, and entry through a gap a quarter inch wide at the slab, the garage door seal or a utility penetration.
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Field and deer mice
Cooler months bring them in from the prairie edges and greenbelts around the outer suburbs. Same quarter-inch standard, same sealing, with the garage and the utility penetrations as the usual routes.
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A carcass in a wall
A heavy, sweet odor that builds over days and peaks around the second week usually follows a poison-only plan. The EPA notes that most rodenticides are anticoagulants and that death comes four days to two weeks after the first feeding, which means the animal dies wherever it happens to be nesting.
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Storm and flood displacement
High water pushes rats and mice out of burrows and storm drains into garages and attics. Houston pest firms reported to local news after Hurricane Harvey that rodents moved into attics in numbers they had not seen, and the CDC has recorded rises in leptospirosis after hurricanes and floods and names rodents among the animals that spread it.
Why a Houston rodent job depends on the age of the house
Houston has two kinds of house and they are entered differently. Inside the loop, in the Heights, Montrose, Woodland Heights, Garden Oaks and Eastwood, the stock is pier-and-beam bungalows and cottages from before 1970 with open crawl spaces and soffit transitions that were never sealed, so Norway rats come in from below and roof rats from the canopy above. Outside the loop the subdivisions of Spring Branch, Memorial, Katy, Sugar Land, Pearland, Cypress and The Woodlands are slab-on-grade, and the entry moves up to the roofline: the gap between brick veneer and wall sheathing, the soffit-to-brick joint, garage corners and utility penetrations.
The roof itself adds the rest. Composition shingle on a vented attic is the norm because of the heat, and Houston sun cracks the rubber boots on plumbing vents and the plastic bases of turbine and mushroom vents within a few years. A cracked boot is a hole the size of a rat, above head height, that nobody looks at.
Rodents here breed all year with no winter die-off, and the calls still peak from October to December when night temperatures drop and rats commit to nesting indoors. Hurricane season sits on top of that: flooding pushes animals out of burrows and drains, and wind lifts vent hoods and bends soffits. Rodent exclusion and post-storm inspection are built around those two facts.
Why Houston homeowners route the call through us
Three things separate a job that ends from one that runs for months.
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Sealing is written into every job
A Houston house is entered at the roofline or under the floor: cracked pipe boots, mushroom vents with failed seals, the joint where soffit meets brick, and on inner-loop bungalows the open crawl space. Traps without sealing pull in replacements from the bayou corridor. The contractor we route closes the unused openings first, traps what is still inside, and shuts the final run once the attic goes quiet.
A quarter inch is the rat-proofing standard, UF/IFAS Extension
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Price bands on the page, before the truck rolls
The Houston figures come from Angi and the national ones from HomeGuide, and both are printed on every service page. The free inspection turns them into an itemized quote with trapping, sealing and cleanup on separate lines, which is the only kind of quote homeowners in the forums say they could judge.
Houston rat exterminator jobs typically $381 to $1,370, Angi
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A TDA license number you can check
The Texas Department of Agriculture licenses every business that controls rats or mice for pay, and the license shows as a TPCL number on the truck. Each contractor we route holds the license the job calls for. Ask for the number and confirm it with the department before the ladder goes up.
Structural Pest Control Service, Texas Department of Agriculture
Book the free inspection tonight
The line is answered around the clock. Tell us what you hear, which room it is over and how long it has gone on, and a licensed contractor near you gets booked for a free inspection that ends in an itemized quote.
Three jobs the way they usually run
Representative calls from the kinds of houses Houston has, with the sequence each one took.
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A bungalow in the Heights
Scratching over a back bedroom every night since the first October cool front, on a 1920s pier-and-beam house under live oaks.
The inspection finds a rotted skirting board at the crawl space and a soffit gap where a limb rests on the roof. Both routes are sealed in steel except the active one, traps go in the attic and under the floor, and the last gap closes when the traps go quiet.
Outcome: Two visits over about three weeks, trapping and sealing on separate lines, a recommendation to cut the limb back, and no return of the noise.
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A slab two-story in Katy
Droppings in the garage and a chewed cable in the attic of a 1990s brick-veneer house, found during a Christmas decoration trip.
The roofline check turns up a cracked rubber pipe boot and a mushroom vent with a failed seal. The brick weep gaps at the garage are screened, the boot and vent are closed in metal, and traps are set along the attic runs for a week.
Outcome: One roof rat trapped, the attic insulation spot-checked and left in place, and an itemized quote that came in inside the published Houston band.
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A restaurant on the east side
A health inspection is due and staff have seen a rat at the dumpster corral after dark at a slab-built restaurant near the Ship Channel.
Norway rat burrows are found along the slab edge behind the corral. Exterior bait stations go in under the TDA license, the rear door sweep and a conduit penetration are sealed, and the kitchen line is trapped and checked twice a week.
Outcome: A written service log for the inspection file, burrows collapsed and inactive after two weeks, and a monthly exterior check priced as its own line.
The route in from the sewer line
How a rat travels a drain into a house.
Video: How do rats get out of the sewers and into your home?, from BEEKIND Pest Control.
How a rodent job runs in Houston
The same four steps on every call, with sealing in the middle where it belongs, because a sealed house full of rats and an open house with traps both fail.
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Call and describe it
Where the noise is, what time of day, how long, and what you have found. That narrows the species before anyone drives out.
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Free inspection
Roofline, attic, crawl space where there is one, interior and yard, every opening recorded, and an itemized quote written from it.
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Seal and trap
Unused openings closed in steel first, snap traps on the active runs, left at least a week because roof rats avoid new objects.
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Close and restore
Once the activity stops, the last run is sealed and the attic is cleaned or re-insulated where the damage calls for it.
Which service fits the call
Most jobs use two or three of these in order. Each carries a figure so you can budget before the inspection.
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Rat removal
Trapping on the active runs, sequenced with sealing. Angi puts a typical Houston rat exterminator job at $381 to $1,370, average about $831. Rat removal.
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Mouse removal
Quarter-inch gaps at the slab, garage seal and utility lines closed, traps in the cabinets and voids. HomeGuide puts national trapping and removal at $250 to $1,200. Mouse removal.
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Rodent exclusion
The roofline, brick weeps, vent boots and crawl-space skirting closed to the quarter-inch standard. Houston exclusion work runs $430 to $1,300 per Angi. Rodent exclusion.
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Rodent inspection
Free here; HomeGuide puts a standalone inspection at up to $175 nationally and Angi puts Houston inspection fees at $100 to $200. Rodent inspection.
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Attic cleanup
Droppings, nests and urine-wet insulation removed and the attic sanitized. HomeGuide puts cleanup and decontamination at $600 to $2,500. Attic cleanup.
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Insulation replacement
HomeGuide prices removal and replacement at $2.50 to $5.50 per square foot. The Department of Energy notes compressed and wet insulation performs below its rating. Insulation replacement.
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Dead rodent removal
Locating and removing a carcass from a wall or attic, then closing the route. HomeGuide puts it at $150 to $500 nationally. Dead rodent removal.
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Clearance letters and commercial
A written report for a closing or a lease, and documented programs for restaurants, warehouses and multifamily. Clearance letters, commercial rodent control.
Where contractors are dispatched
Houston and the surrounding counties, with a page for each neighborhood and town where the houses, the trees or the water change what a job looks like.
Questions Houston homeowners ask first
Straight answers to what comes up on nearly every call.
Which animal, and how long it takes
How long does it usually take to get rid of rats?
Longer than a single visit. HomeGuide puts trapping a small number of animals at two to three days and a severe infestation at one to two months, and the sealing is what gives the trapping an end date. Accounts of four months with no result almost always describe traps with nothing sealed.
Is it rats or mice in the ceiling?
In a Houston attic it is usually a roof rat. Noise after dark, rub marks along the joists and droppings a quarter to half an inch long with pointed ends fit that species per UF/IFAS. Droppings under a quarter inch and activity in kitchen cabinets point to house mice, and heavy daytime footfalls point to a squirrel.
What keeps rats away permanently?
A building with no opening larger than a quarter inch. Repellents and ultrasonic plugs do nothing about the gap, and UF/IFAS notes a roof rat ranges about 150 yards from its den, so the neighbor's fruit tree keeps the pressure on for as long as the soffit is open. Steel mesh, sheet metal and new vent boots are what hold.
Price and the people who do the work
What is the cheapest way to get rid of rats?
Snap traps plus sealing, done once. Angi puts a typical Houston rat exterminator job between $381 and $1,370, and exclusion work at $430 to $1,300. A poison-only plan looks cheaper and often produces a dead animal in a wall and a second bill.
Should I just put out poison?
The story that poison makes rats go outside looking for water is folklore. According to the EPA, most rodenticides are anticoagulants; a rat that starts feeding takes anywhere from four days to two weeks to die, and one nesting over your bedroom dies over your bedroom. UF/IFAS notes that trapping reduces the risk of a poisoned rat dying inside the building.
Who shows up, and are they licensed?
An independent Houston contractor holding the Texas Department of Agriculture license the job needs. Rodenticide work requires a TDA business license with a certified applicator; live trapping alone has been exempt since 2009. Ask for the TPCL number and confirm it with the department before work starts.
Still have a question? Call (713) 804-8785 and ask.