My wife and I have owned a rural central Tx property for about 11 years as our primary residence.
Never once had a mouse/rat problem until this fall.

We went on an overseas trip to Ireland/Scotland for our 30th anniversary. We were gone for most of Sept 2023 and have been battling an infestation of what I believe are "roof rats" ever since we got back home.

These are much larger and more aggressive than mice, the largest ones I've personally seen being 6-8" in body length and 10"+ with tail. Most that we've seen and/or caught have been half that size.

We've trapped/killed 38 total now with typical traps but still experiencing many in the ceilings and around our place.

Never seen anything like it...and it's effing gross and embarrassing.

Need help finding a solution.

Thanks in advance.

dc

Need to find and seal the places they are getting in. Usually roof corners under overhangs, etc. We had that issue with our house in West Houston and it took 3 tries for the pest control excluder to get all the entry points closed up. Once you do that, trap all the ones caught inside so you don't have dead ones rotting in the ceiling and walls.

How does the misses feel about a colony of pet rat snakes?

An outdoor cat will help

4 said:

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An outdoor cat will help

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I'd be down at the nearest shelter adopting 3, my wife is allergic, and I don't much care for cats

normaleagle05 said:

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4 said:

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An outdoor cat will help

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I'd be down at the nearest shelter adopting 3, my wife is allergic, and I don't much care for cats

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Yeah, I don't like cats, either, but we had a stray that adopted us and lived on our patio for 10 years. Never had a single issue with rodents.

The year after she died, we had roof rats and squirrels, twice. Raccoons recently.

I'm thinking of getting another outdoor cat cause they earn their keep.

Cats are not the best option and they are hell on songbirds. If you do go that route, at least get them spayed or neutered.

We have 3 outdoor cats and 3 dogs.

Have used 6 cans of polycel foam sealing every gap i can find.

Look where the AC copper goes into the outside wall. We had a squirrel get in there.

Also that green poison pellet stuff works. Throw a box all over your attic. They'll leave looking for water most of the time.

If you've got the room, chickens are good mousers and will get you some eggs to boot.

I have to address this on some houses in the hill country. Here is a photo of where most builders short cut fascia and trim leaving a larger than necessary gap that squirrels, ringtails, and rats enter.

This house had these animal exclusion stuff on nearly 15 locations so check every place your roof touches your trim.

The pest company basically folds up a hardware cloth, stuffs it in that gap like a taco, and then foams over the mesh. Great Stuff sells a poly foam you can use that is for pest control. The roof rats and squirrels won't enter here again, and if they attempt to chew the foam away, they will find wire mesh and abandon it.

A rat can get through the smallest of openings, regardless of what you and I think they can accomplish.

Ours in Houston looked just like that. But what is that hose coming out of there?

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for our 30th anniversary.

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Congratualtions. We also married in '93 and I have not regretted it for a nanosecond. Now, if my wife reads this and learns that trips to Scotland were an option - she might regret it a few nanoseconds.

My wife is allergic to cats as well. However when she saw the reduction in mice and the snakes that are Britton our back door she doesn't want to be without them.

txags92 said:

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Ours in Houston looked just like that. But what is that hose coming out of there?

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That's an air hose. That image is from during the install of the roof. You can see sealed vs. unsealed.

You can also use flashing or drip edge, anything that will snugly fit in that hole. The trim technically should be OFF your shingles by 1/4-1/2" so it doesn't wick moisture, so foam or flashing will close the gap and not wick.

Been in the hill country 25 years. Every year when it gets gold a few deer mice come in and hardly do anything bad. Last year them big *******s showed up for the first time. They cause damage and they can be wicked smart.

Its an all out war to eradicate them and not unlike IDF working to take out hamas.

Use various traps, various bait, setting them w gloves or something to mask your scent. Don't get complacent because you caught 4-5 in a day because at the same time your teaching a couple how to survive and they are gonna go breed more.

We had a bird feeder about 15' outside our window and one night I saw two of them eating off it. Next night i had the screen removed, the window oiled, and unlatched and they were scattered to the wind via 12 gauge.

Set traps and or blind outside because they are coming in and out like the ole chicken ranch at night.

Good Luck!

Jason_InfinityRoofer said:

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I have to address this on some houses in the hill country. Here is a photo of where most builders short cut fascia and trim leaving a larger than necessary gap that squirrels, ringtails, and rats enter.

This house had these animal exclusion stuff on nearly 15 locations so check every place your roof touches your trim.

The pest company basically folds up a hardware cloth, stuffs it in that gap like a taco, and then foams over the mesh. Great Stuff sells a poly foam you can use that is for pest control. The roof rats and squirrels won't enter here again, and if they attempt to chew the foam away, they will find wire mesh and abandon it.

A rat can get through the smallest of openings, regardless of what you and I think they can accomplish.

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I went this route because of red wasps not because of rats. They were getting into the attic by every roof/ soffit junction we have and they look just like the the second pic above. Nothing will piss you off more than getting stung by a red wasp in the attic when you are already pissed off because you are in the attic.

Just put out bait and kill them, yes you may have a few die in the attic once in a while, but if you put the bait traps around the outside of the house and then some in the attic you will get rid of them, my mom had them and even though they are gone they will come back if you don't keep bait out. As soon as winter hits and it gets cold and wet outside they will invade your attic or barn, this is the time of year they get really active in Attics.. I will probably put some bait out this weekend as the weather is starting to turn for the worse … those little f ers love curling up in that nice warm insulation.. perfect place to make a nice cozy nest and have some babies. Rat poison snacks are great food for them !

www.tomcatbrand.com Sold almost everywhere, it works

txags92 said:

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Need to find and seal the places they are getting in. Usually roof corners under overhangs, etc. We had that issue with our house in West Houston and it took 3 tries for the pest control excluder to get all the entry points closed up. Once you do that, trap all the ones caught inside so you don't have dead ones rotting in the ceiling and walls.

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Exact same experience in memorial area of Houston.

Also keep poison still in attic and garage in those big animal proof containers. The pest guy says that if you keep it out all the time, the ones that come in and find it will immediately leave to go look for water and die elsewhere. If they've been in your place for a while and find it they're more likely to look for water inside and then die inside. Seems to hold true.

On poisoning....

Why not get one, or a few of the black outdoor bait boxes and place them around the exterior of the house?

Also, I would like to recommend an electric rat trap (read mouse/rat electrocution device here). Unbelievably efficient. They don't even get all the way to the bait, usually, before being zapped. You can tell if you have one from a distance as the tail sticks out. Pick up the trap from the outside, dump the zapped rodent, turn off/on again to reset, and set it out again. Helpful hint: Bait it but don't turn it on and set it out. You'll need to bait it a couple of times over a day, but they get used to going in. Lots of them. Did this and electrocuted 4 in one evening, two the next day, and no more issues. Sealed up access point, Done. Even moved the trap outside, and nothing after that. I think I got the colony in and around the house.

normaleagle05 said:

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4 said:

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An outdoor cat will help

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I'd be down at the nearest shelter adopting 3, my wife is allergic, and I don't much care for cats

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You need to get this guy .........or his cousin Bruno

Had this happen at our house in Houston. I had to poison. Nothing else worked. I have about 5 lbs of Warfarin if you are in the CS area.

I'd be concerned with poison if you have dogs. Rat eats poison, gets outside, dies, dog eats rat. Rat is poisoned.

Happened to a good friend of mine.

Rattler12 said:

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normaleagle05 said:

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4 said:

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An outdoor cat will help

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I'd be down at the nearest shelter adopting 3, my wife is allergic, and I don't much care for cats

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You need to get this guy .........or his cousin Bruno

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Reminds me of my senior year at A&M. We moved into a house in College Station and the first night we stayed there we heard what sounded like a pack of bulldogs running across the ceiling during the middle of the night. It took us a while to figure out that it was rats. Every time I had a new girlfriend over to stay the night, I had to explain to her that it was our ghost running around in the attic causing all the dang noise.

We finally realized there we had a bag of birdseed in the garage. Got rid of that and shortly after the rats disappeared.

Great thread. We live backed up to a big greenbelt and I haven't heard, smelled, or seen anything in a long time so I'm going to go up in the attic this weekend to distribute some holiday cheer to any varmints that might come calling. Good reminder.

1) Get a load of copper mesh and jam it into every spot on around your eaves/soffits/roof/AC/vents. Any crack at all (fify protected), so hit them all. You may want to do weep holes as well.

https://a.co/d/gWLR2is



2) Make sure you have covers on any roof vents.

3) station poison around the perimeter of your house in boxes like below to keep pets/animals out of it.
https://a.co/d/5rewpT2



Will require consistent vigilance, but between traps and bait stations, you can kill them before they find a way in. But you have to stay consistent with it

Either relocate them or fill the bucket with water.

Again, if you have outdoor pets, be careful using poison. You can easily poison your dog or cat if they try to eat a rat that has been poisoned. Even if it doesn't kill them, it can cause severe organ damage depending on the poison used.

Loss of natural predators. We bale some fields up by San Angelo. Used to see lots of coyotes, bobcats and hawks working the fields when baleing … see no predators now and the rats and mice run everywhere when cutting. Lots of rattlesnakes now though.

Gunny456 said:

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Loss of natural predators. We bale some fields up by San Angelo. Used to see lots of coyotes, bobcats and hawks working the fields when baleing … see no predators now and the rats and mice run everywhere when cutting. Lots of rattlesnakes now though.

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Every time I see a dumpster full of bobcats, coyotes, and foxes from one of the "predator hunting contests" with a bunch of proud hunters standing around them, I think about threads like this with people wondering how they came to be overrun with rodents. Not saying that is the case with the OP's situation, but it is the natural outcome from eliminating all the predators in an area.

It is also another reason to avoid using poison in outdoor traps. You run the risk of killing off owls, hawks, foxes, etc that would otherwise be your natural allies against the rats.

Well said as usual.