Brief Description

Rodents can damage homes, contaminate food, chew wires, leave droppings, and create stressful scratching noises in walls or attics. In Southeast Texas, mice, roof rats, and Norway rats commonly enter homes and businesses looking for food, water, shelter, and nesting areas.

Stephen Terry Pest Elimination provides professional rodent control with a focus on exclusion: finding and sealing the entry points rodents use to get inside.

Signs of Infestation

You may have rodents if you notice:

• Droppings in cabinets, pantries, garages, attics, or along walls
• Scratching, chewing, or running sounds in walls, ceilings, or attics
• Gnaw marks on wood, wires, food packaging, or stored items
• Greasy rub marks along walls or baseboards
• Nesting material such as shredded paper, insulation, or fabric
• Pet food, bird seed, or pantry food that has been chewed open
• Musty odors in hidden areas
• Burrows, tracks, or activity around the exterior foundation

If you hear activity at night or find droppings inside, rodents may already have an established entry point.

Control Process

Our rodent control process focuses on solving the source of the problem, not just catching the rodents you see or hear.

1. Inspect — We check the interior and exterior for droppings, nesting areas, travel routes, damage, and entry points.
2. Identify — We determine what type of rodent activity is present and where rodents are entering.
3. Exclude — We seal accessible openings, gaps, cracks, and construction vulnerabilities that rodents use to get inside.
4. Control — We use trapping, monitoring, and other professional control methods to reduce active rodent pressure.
5. Prevent — We recommend sanitation, storage, landscaping, and maintenance steps to help keep rodents out.

The goal is not just to remove rodents. The goal is to keep them from coming back.

Why It Matters

Rodents are more than a nuisance. They can contaminate food and surfaces with urine, droppings, and hair. They can also damage insulation, wiring, ductwork, stored items, and building materials.

Trapping rodents without sealing entry points is usually a temporary fix. If the openings remain, new rodents can enter after the first ones are removed. Exclusion helps turn rodent control into a longer-term solution by physically blocking access to the structure.

Prevention Tips

Help reduce rodent activity around your property by following these steps:

• Seal gaps around doors, garage doors, pipes, vents, and utility lines
• Store food, pet food, and bird seed in sealed containers
• Keep trash cans closed and away from entry points
• Trim tree limbs and shrubs away from the roofline and exterior walls
• Remove clutter, cardboard, and stored materials from garages and sheds
• Keep firewood and debris away from the structure
• Repair damaged screens, vents, siding, and door sweeps
• Schedule a professional inspection if you find droppings or hear activity

Prevention works best when exclusion, sanitation, and monitoring are used together.

Pest Facts

• Mice can squeeze through openings about the size of a dime.
• Rats can fit through openings about the size of a quarter.
• Rodents usually travel along walls and edges because they prefer cover.
• Roof rats are excellent climbers and often enter through rooflines, trees, attics, and upper openings.
• Norway rats are strong burrowers and are often associated with ground-level activity.
• Rodents’ front teeth never stop growing, so they constantly gnaw to keep them worn down.
• Rodents can contaminate far more food than they actually eat.

More Information

The most common structure-infesting rodents in Texas are the house mouse, Mus musculus, the Norway rat, Rattus norvegicus, and the roof rat, Rattus rattus. These are often called commensal rodents because they live near people and benefit from human food, shelter, and buildings.

House mice are small, curious rodents that can enter through very small openings. They commonly nest in wall voids, cabinets, garages, storage areas, attics, pantries, and cluttered spaces. Because they need only small amounts of food and can survive with limited water, they can be difficult to notice until droppings or noises appear.

Roof rats are agile climbers. They often use trees, vines, fences, utility lines, and rooflines to access homes and businesses. They may nest in attics, soffits, wall voids, ceilings, and upper structural areas. In the Gulf Coast region, roof rat activity is especially important because homes often have trees, humidity, attic access points, and construction gaps that create opportunities for entry.

Norway rats are larger, heavier rodents that often stay closer to the ground. They may burrow near foundations, under slabs, along fence lines, near sheds, under debris, or around dumpsters and food sources. They are strong gnawers and can damage materials while trying to enter or expand shelter areas.

Rodents have a simple but fast life cycle. After mating, females can produce multiple litters, and young rodents mature quickly. This means a small rodent issue can grow if food, water, shelter, and entry points remain available.

Rodents are mostly active at night, but daytime sightings can happen when populations are high, food is scarce, or nesting areas are disturbed. Common indoor signs include droppings, gnaw marks, rub marks, urine odor, nesting material, damaged food packaging, and scratching sounds in walls or attics.

Rodent exclusion is the process of physically sealing openings that allow rodents to enter. This may include gaps around plumbing and utility lines, damaged vents, garage door gaps, construction joints, roof returns, soffit openings, weep holes, crawl space access points, and openings around doors or siding.

Exclusion is important because rodents are persistent. Baits and traps may reduce the current population, but they do not correct the reason rodents got inside. If a home still has open access points, new rodents can continue entering from outside. A professional exclusion inspection helps identify the hidden or hard-to-reach entry points that homeowners often miss.

DIY rodent control can be frustrating because rodents do not always travel in obvious places. A homeowner may set traps in the kitchen while rodents are entering through the roofline, nesting in the attic, and traveling through wall voids. Store-bought bait may also create problems if rodents die inside walls or inaccessible areas.

Professional rodent control uses a broader approach. The technician looks at how rodents are entering, where they are traveling, what they are feeding on, and what conditions are supporting them. A complete plan may include trapping, exterior monitoring, entry-point sealing, sanitation recommendations, vegetation trimming, and follow-up inspections.

For long-term results, exclusion should be paired with environmental changes. Food should be sealed. Trash should be secured. Pet food and bird seed should be stored properly. Tree limbs should be trimmed away from the roof. Garage doors, door sweeps, vents, and utility penetrations should be kept in good condition.

If you suspect rodent activity, avoid sealing holes before the inspection unless instructed. Sealing the wrong opening at the wrong time can trap rodents inside. A professional can help determine the right order: inspect, identify activity, control the active rodents, seal entry points, and monitor afterward.