Pest Control Inspection
- Find out the species
- Discover how many animals are present
- Uncover where they are living
- Identify all animal entry points
Squirrels, bats, raccoons, snakes, lizards, rats, mice, minks, voles, armadillos, opossums and rabbits are a few of the Texas wildlife you can see roaming Bexar County. They are in search of food, water and shelter. Depending on the season, they may be preparing for winter or preparing to give birth. Depending on the season, they may be preparing for winter or preparing to give birth.
As a homeowner, you always try to fend off any problems that might cause costly repairs or risk your family’s health. While some chores, such as sealing gaps in your roof and foundation and keeping trash cans tightly closed, help to make your property less attractive to wildlife, they don’t guarantee you will never have an infestation.
Wildlife can quickly become nuisance wildlife when they start damaging your property, annoying you and your family, or posing a threat to humans. Calling a wildlife removal company can help you avoid risks, like being bitten by a potentially diseased animal, further damage to your property and fines due to broken laws.
At Critter Control, we know the local and state laws and have the best safety equipment and extensive wildlife training. Our three-step process of inspection, removal and repair effectively gets rid of unwanted wildlife from your property quickly.
Wildlife will damage your home. Exclusion techniques repair any damage the animal causes when getting into your home. Inside your home, animals build nests and dens out of readily available material. They will create runs through the insulation. Rodents will gnaw on anything, including electrical wires and pipes. Animals can also spread diseases. We apply sanitation agents to clean up feces and urine. Mammals can host pests like fleas, ticks, and mites. Ectoparasite treatments exterminate those pests so you don’t become their next host.
In Texas, raccoons are protected furbearers and cannot be harmed outside of certain seasons. In San Antonio, raccoons are urban nuisances. With their cute masks and fuzzy-banded tails, they seem harmless. But as the sun goes down, they look for food and water. They eat insects, bird eggs, frogs, rodents, and fish in a more natural habitat. But, in a more urban setting, they are happy to dine on pet food left outside, garden crops, and what they can get out of your trash can.
Raccoons create nests in hollowed trees, chimneys, and attics. They will force their way into your home by breaking screens and boards, or they will walk right through your pet door if it is left open. Raccoons create costly damage to attics, like chewing wires and shredding insulation. When they block vents and chimneys, it could become a fire hazard. Raccoons are excellent climbers and can manipulate objects well with their hands. While many nuisance animals squeeze through existing gaps, raccoons can tear holes in siding and shingles where there were none.
Calling experts to remove a raccoon is best. They not only know state and local laws, but they also will keep your family safe, as raccoons can become aggressive when threatened. Additionally, they can carry rabies and spread parasites.
Critter Control will determine the severity of the raccoon infestation. We look for physical evidence, like footprints in or around the home and stains from raccoon feces and urine. On the exterior of the house, we look for damage like scratches on boards, broken vents and screens, ripped shingles, destroyed soffits, and every possible entry point.
There are up to 50 species of rats and mice in San Antonio and across Texas. Looking for a warm place to nest with ample access to food, Norway and roof rats can enter your home through the tiniest of gaps or chew through siding, screens, electrical wiring, and shingles. Sometimes, they burrow underground, under trees, sheds, or your home. This can make foundations unstable. The house mouse and its relatives chew holes in walls, baseboards, pantry cabinets, and food containers inside your home.
Both rats and mice leave trails of feces and urine as they travel around your home. Because rats and mice can carry several transmissible diseases, don’t risk getting bitten by removing them yourself. We can help get rid of your rat and mouse problem. Rodents multiply quickly, so it’s best to call while the infestation is small.
During a rodent inspection, we thoroughly inspect your attic and provide a complete exterior home inspection. The most common signs of rodent activity are gnaw marks, feces, rub marks, nesting material, runs in insulation material, and small entry points.
Texas squirrels on your San Antonio property include the gray, fox and flying species. Squirrels enjoy fruits, nuts, grains, seeds, garden crops, and even bark when times are hard.
As members of the rodent family, squirrels’ teeth are constantly growing. To prevent overgrowth, they gnaw on hard objects. If squirrels are in your yard or home, hard objects can be walls, floors, rails, pipes, furniture, electrical wires, and more.
Squirrels are collectors, gathering items and storing them for later. They accumulate their food and nest items in ducts and vents, creating a fire hazard. They tear insulation for their nests, causing an increase in your electric bill. They even leave their feces and urine behind.
Outside, they will damage siding, fascia, shingles, and your yard. They love to dig holes in your yard to store food.
While squirrels are cute and fun to watch, they can also carry diseases. If you try to remove them alone, they may feel threatened and bite or scratch. To avoid getting injured, contact a professional wildlife service like Critter Control. Our process works for squirrel removal near you.
Our wildlife specialists look for signs such as chewing on, in, or around your home, small openings leading to the attic or the crawl space, droppings, and debris like nuts or nesting material. Beams, wires, pipes, and insulation may all show signs of damage from squirrels.
San Antonio bats are beneficial to the environment and are a protected species. They eat thousands of insects every night, which is why they are an essential factor in our ecosystem. Also, they are excellent pollinators, and their feces, or guano, is a great fertilizer. There are species of bats that live in colonies and species that are solitary.
Over 30 species of bats live in Texas. Eleven of those can live near humans and transmit diseases. Six of these species live in colonies, while the others are solitary. Since bats are creatures of habit, it’s important to do what you can to bat-proof your home, barn, or other structures. Otherwise, you may have a bat nuisance problem every year.
Bat guano can become a problem. It will stain floors and walls, and it is so acidic that it can erode metals and wood.
Trying to get rid of bats yourself puts you at risk of contact with their feces, which can carry mold spores. Also, they may bite you and transmit disease. Let our experts keep you and your family safe from bats.
We perform a full interior and exterior inspection and search for signs such as rub marks, guano, a strong scent of ammonia, and small openings. The most common sign is the accumulation of guano (feces).
Bats are federally protected because of their vital ecological role and declining numbers. Harming a bat can lead to stiff penalties, especially during their maternity season, which lasts from late spring to the fall, when their young become able to fly and feed on their own. Many bat species are protected by state and local ordinances.
Critter Control is fully versed in how to humanely and legally remove bats. We utilize a bat valve in conjunction with a full home exclusion. A bat valve allows bats to exit your home but not re-enter. In addition to following the law, we will never abandon flightless pups in your attic.
The nine-banded armadillo is the state’s official small mammal. The armadillo has great qualities, like its armor, which protects it from predators. When startled, it shoots straight up in the air, shocking its predator and giving it time to hide. It has claws for digging, which is what it does all the time. It digs only to search for food like insects and grubs.
Digging, when it’s done on your property, can also become a nuisance when the roots of trees are destroyed, killing the tree that may fall on your home. Or, if armadillos dig under driveways, gardens, or livestock fences, damage can follow. Because they live in burrows underground, it’s crucial to make sure armadillo holes do not interfere with the structure of your home or buildings.
Armadillos can carry leprosy, so you mustn’t handle them yourself. Critter Control has over 40 years of experience in wildlife removal, especially with armadillos. If you have an armadillo destroying your yard, give Critter Control a call.
Our experts understand the habits and habitats of armadillos. We can assess if damages were caused by their burrows or digging. We look for holes that are shallow and wide, made as the armadillo roots for insects. These holes look as though the grass has been torn away from the ground. Just one armadillo can leave holes all over your lawn in just a few hours of foraging. Another way we identify your nuisance animal as an armadillo is that their burrows are much closer to the walls of your shed, house, or garage than many other animal species, which will dig their burrows farther underneath. The scent of an armadillo is quite distinct and something a Critter Control specialist will recognize. They also have an unusual nose print.
To keep your family safe from disease and an armadillo’s aggression, only a professional should get rid of this nuisance. We use humane live traps to capture the animal and relocate it to a suitable, nonresidential area far from your property.
Every armadillo removal is different and may require different safety techniques, from live traps to fumigations and repellents. Armadillos have a keen sense of smell, and castor oil repellents that penetrate the ground make the grubs and insects they eat distasteful to them.
Armadillo repair includes both exclusion and restoration methods. Once the armadillo is removed, adding exclusions such as fencing that extends underground or hardware cloth helps keep them away. Other exclusions include clearing debris, brush, and piles of wood or rocks from your property. These are spots armadillos like to hide. We also recommend motion-activated lights to scare them away. We also cover burrows so that an armadillo cannot return.
Raccoons, squirrels, opossums, rats and bats in attics, between floors, in chimneys or vents. Noises between floors, in walls or the attic. Skunks and armadillos digging in yards, flower beds or gardens. Bees in the attic, wall or chimney.
Hotter seasons generally have less animal activity in the attic. Rodents can be found year-round in the attic. Skunks and armadillos are very active with digging in the yard/flower beds in the summer season. Fall and spring bring baby season, and there is an increase in wildlife moving into attics.
Digging in the yard or flower beds. Noises and scratching in the attic and walls. Finding droppings, chewed wires in the attic, or torn insulation. Smelling odors inside the house. Vents screens are pulled away or missing from the vent.
Don’t feed wildlife. Keep your pet food in animal-proof containers (not plastic) and don’t leave your pet food unattended outside. Make sure garage doors are closed in the evening. Keep trees and bushes trimmed around your house. Remove any brush or wood piles. Don’t feed the birds. Make sure there are no open holes where an animal can get inside your attic. Call Critter Control to inspect your home for animal entry and have us seal every hole or entry point.
As soon as they hear a noise or scratching in the attic, walls or between floors. Also, as soon as they see any droppings inside the house or attic, or if insulation has been removed.