Rats and mice are the most common calls HomeGuard takes across DFW, and they are the two pests homeowners most often try to handle alone before calling. A trap from the hardware store catches the rodent you can see. It does nothing about the gap in your soffit that let it in, or the dozen more using the same route. That is the difference between killing rodents and solving a rodent problem.
Call (469) 402-9767 to schedule an inspection.
Signs you have rats or mice
Most homeowners hear rodents before they see them. Scratching or scurrying overhead after dark, particularly in the hour or two after sunset, is the classic first sign – rats and mice are nocturnal, and an attic amplifies movement.
- Droppings along walls, in pantries, or in attic insulation. Rat droppings are roughly the size of a raisin; mouse droppings are closer to a grain of rice.
- Gnaw marks on food packaging, baseboards, or wiring insulation.
- Greasy rub marks along baseboards and beams, left by rodents following the same route night after night.
- Nesting material – shredded insulation, paper, or fabric tucked into corners of the attic or garage.
- A persistent musky odor that gets stronger in enclosed spaces.
- Pets fixating on a wall, vent, or ceiling area for no visible reason.
The damage rodents do to a DFW home
Rodent incisors grow continuously, which means rats and mice have to gnaw constantly to keep them worn down. They are not chewing your house because they want to eat it – they are chewing because they have to chew something, and your house is what is available.
The most serious version of this is electrical. Rodents strip the insulation from wiring in attics and wall cavities, exposing live conductors inside a space packed with paper-faced insulation. Chewed wiring is a recognised cause of house fires, and it is damage you cannot see until someone goes looking for it.
Beyond wiring, rodents compress and soil attic insulation – which quietly raises cooling bills through a North Texas summer – contaminate stored belongings, chew through HVAC ductwork and water lines, and leave urine and droppings that carry pathogens including hantavirus, salmonella and leptospirosis.
Rats and mice are not the same problem
Treating them identically is one reason DIY attempts fail. Roof rats, the dominant rat in the Dallas area, are climbers – they enter high, using tree limbs that overhang the roof, and they nest in attics and upper wall voids. House mice enter low and need a gap no wider than a pencil. They breed far faster than rats, which is why a mouse problem escalates from one sighting to an infestation in weeks.
The inspection determines which you have, because it changes where we look, what we seal, and how we approach the removal.
How HomeGuard handles rodent control
1. Full inspection
We inspect the attic, crawlspace, roofline, foundation, garage and utility penetrations. The goal is not just to confirm rodents are present – it is to map every route they are using and every gap they could use next.
2. Entry point identification
Rodents exploit construction gaps most homeowners never notice: where the roofline meets the siding, around plumbing and HVAC penetrations, at foundation vents, under garage door seals, and at deteriorated soffit and fascia.
3. Removal
We remove the active population using targeted trapping placed according to the routes found during inspection, rather than scattered guesswork.
4. Exclusion
Every identified entry point is sealed with materials rodents cannot chew through. This is the step that actually ends the problem, and it is the step most cheap treatments skip. See our exclusion services for how this work is done.
5. Cleanup
Where contamination is significant, soiled insulation and nesting material are removed and the space sanitised. That work is covered under attic decontamination.
Why exterminator-only treatments keep failing
A recurring pattern: a homeowner pays for quarterly treatments, the rodents quiet down, and three months later the scratching comes back. Bait and traps reduce the population currently inside. They do nothing to the entry point. As long as the gap is open, the house stays available to every rodent in the neighbourhood, and something always moves in.
Permanent exclusion costs more once and less over time than treatment you pay for indefinitely.
Where we work
HomeGuard provides rodent control across the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, including Rockwall, Wylie, McKinney, Dallas, Frisco, Rowlett, Heath, Fate, Royse City and Lavon.
Related reading
- Rats in Your Dallas Home: The Hidden Damage and How to Stop It
- Mouse Infestations in DFW Homes: Signs, Damage, and Prevention
Think you have rodents? Call (469) 402-9767 or request an inspection.