Guaranteed Rat Extermination Services in Houston, TX
Damaged food packages in your pantry? Scurrying sounds inside your house at night? Those are signs of a rat and mouse infestation. Reach out to Stampede Pest Control for expert assistance. Every service is guaranteed.
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Expert rodent removal across Houston, TX
Are there damaged food packages in your pantry? Do you hear scurrying sounds inside your house at night? These are signs of a rat and mouse infestation. Reach out to Stampede Pest Control right away for expert assistance. We can quickly and safely remove current rodent problems as well as help to prevent future infestations. Our Houston rat and mouse exterminators are experienced and thorough, and we guarantee all services.
Mice and rats can cause serious, expensive problems to your property. They can cause fire hazards by chewing through wiring, spread infected fleas and ticks, and they're just plain gross. Let us help you protect your home from rodents all year round with expert rodent control. Call us now for a free quote.
Updated June 2026
Quick answer
How do I get rid of rats in my Houston home?
Houston has both roof rats up high and Norway rats down low along bayous and sewers, so effective removal inspects the whole home. Our exterminators trap the rats, seal the weep holes, roofline, and slab penetrations they use, and clean up droppings and soiled insulation. Every service is guaranteed.
What draws rats into your home
Understanding how rats breed, enter, and nest is the first step to keeping them out for good.
Breeding
Rats reproduce all year round. They breed easily, most especially in favorable, warm climates like that of the Houston area. Females can produce up to 5 litters every year, each with 7 to 14 pups. Rats have a lifespan of about 3 years. However, due to species conflicts and predators, most of them only live for about a year.
Entry points
These pests can enter homes and businesses through openings as small as half an inch. The most common entry points are holes around roofs, chimneys, and vents.
Diet and habitat
Food preferences may vary per rat species. However, in general, rats eat basically anything when hungry. In the wild, they consume plants, seeds, and fruits. Indoors, they eat anything and everything they come across. There are three primary things that can attract rats to your property: shelter, water, and food. They are highly adaptable creatures and can thrive anywhere near food sources.
Nests
Rats prefer to nest in secure, warm areas with convenient access to water and food. They build their nests near food sources using shredded materials like fabrics and newspapers. Their nests can be found in several places around your home. Always check your attic, wall cavities, and under and behind appliances.
Ecological benefits
Rats are pests, sure, but they pull their weight in the ecosystem. They keep things in balance. They feed snakes and birds of prey, and they help scatter seeds and plants from one area to the next.
The rats & mice we treat in Houston
From deer mice to Norway rats, here are the rodents most likely to turn up in a Houston home or business.
Deer Mice
Deer mice are about 3 to 4 inches long, with pointed noses and big, black eyes. They are uniquely bicolored. The upper part of their bodies is reddish-brown, while their feet and underbellies are white. These rodents don't live past a year in the wild but can live up to 8 years in captivity. These tiny pests love eating seeds, nuts, insects, animal matter, and other plant products. Outdoors, they live in hollow logs, tree holes, or piles of rocks. Once they find their way inside homes, they look for dark, warm areas like attics and basements. If you think your house is infested with deer mice, try looking for their nest in undisturbed spaces. These are usually made from fur, seeds, paper, and weeds.
House Mice
House mice vary in color, from black and light brown to grey. These mice have pointed muzzles, and their tails are around 2 to 4 inches long. Just like deer mice, they prefer to consume fruits and nuts, but will generally eat any available food source. House mice love to eat food items that are high in carbohydrates, including chocolates and other sweets. They love spending time under cabinets, under kitchen appliances, and other secluded areas, while basements and attics are considered nesting hotspots. These pests gnaw furniture pieces and electrical wires alike. Exposed, chewed wires can spark and cause a fire, so it's crucial to call reliable pest control specialists the moment you suspect an infestation.
Black Rat / Roof Rat
Despite its name, black rats range from light brown to black in color, with a much lighter underside. They have slender bodies and big ears, with tails longer than their bodies. Black rats are often found outdoors, living in farmlands or fields, feeding on fruits, seeds, nuts, and other vegetation. When food is no longer available, they find their way inside homes and businesses, urinating and producing droppings often and contaminating everything they come into contact with. They're excellent climbers (also referred to as roof rats because of their tendency to seek shelter in a structure's upper levels) and can squeeze through a hole about the size of a quarter. They are about 7 to 10 inches long and weigh about 5 to 9 ounces. Their incisors grow about 4 inches each year, which they manage by continuously chewing on things.
Norway Rats
Norway rats, also referred to as sewer rats, are heavily bodied animals with blunt muzzles. They are 7 to 9 inches long, brown in color, with scattered black hairs and white to gray undersides. These are social pests, often living close to one another. If you notice one burrow in your yard, more likely there are others nearby. They build nests near garbage cans, riverbanks, woodpiles, and under concrete slabs. Norway rats normally live in farmlands and fields, but enter homes around fall when water and food sources become scarce outdoors, nesting in basements and the lower floors of buildings. They eat several types of food but prefer carbohydrates and proteins, and will even kill and consume small insects, birds, mammals, and reptiles.
How rats get into a Houston home
Most Houston homes are slab-on-grade with brick veneer, so the entry points aren't just up in the attic. Sealing them is the part that keeps rats from coming back.
Weep holes and brick veneer
The small gaps left between bricks for drainage are a favorite doorway for roof rats and mice on Houston homes. We fit them with rodent-proof covers that still let the wall breathe.
Garage and utility penetrations
Gaps under garage door thresholds and the holes where AC line sets, water lines, and gas lines pass through the slab and exterior wall are common ground-level entries for Norway rats. We seal them with materials rodents can't chew through.
Roofline, soffit, and vents
Roof rats work the top of the house: gaps in the soffit and fascia, loose vent screens, and gaps around plumbing stacks. We close them and screen the vents so the attic stays sealed.
Plumbing and sewer gaps
Because Norway rats travel Houston's storm and sanitary sewers, we check for uncapped or broken drain lines and gaps around interior plumbing, cutting off the path from below the slab into the home.
How to tell rats and mice apart
Pest control works better once you can tell these two apart. They look alike at a glance, but the size gives them away. Mice run about 12 to 20 cm, tail included. Rats are bigger, medium to large rodents that can stretch as long as 40 cm.
Mice have bigger ears and eyes relative to their heads, with sharper, narrower muzzles and thin, slightly hairy tails. Rats have bigger muzzles and thicker, scaly tails, with ears that are smaller relative to their heads. Compared to mice, rats have coarse fur and bigger feet.
Whether your property is infested with rats or mice, calling Stampede Pest Control is the best solution for an immediate and lasting result. Schedule an inspection now.
When Houston rat problems spike
Houston's climate and its bayous shape when and how rats move in. Knowing the pattern helps you seal the home before it becomes a problem.
Year-round pressure
Houston's mild, humid winters mean rats rarely get the hard freeze that thins populations further inland. Colonies breed close to year-round, so an unsealed home stays a target across every season, not just the cold months.
After heavy rain and flooding
When bayous rise and yards flood, Norway rats get pushed out of burrows and sewer lines and go looking for high, dry ground. A big rain event is one of the most reliable ways to suddenly find rats moving toward garages, ground floors, and slab penetrations.
First cool fronts
As the first fronts push through in fall, both roof rats and Norway rats start testing the house for warmth and food. It's a good prompt to seal entry points before a couple of scouts turn into a nesting group.
Why a rat problem is worth acting on fast
Rats aren't just a nuisance. In a humid, flood-prone city they carry real health and property risks, and those risks grow the longer an infestation runs.
Contamination and disease
Rats foul food and surfaces with droppings and urine and are linked to illnesses such as salmonellosis and rat-bite fever. In a flood-prone city, rodent urine is also associated with leptospirosis, a bacterial infection that can spread through water contaminated by rat urine.
Fleas, ticks, and mites
Rats carry fleas, ticks, and mites into the home. Those parasites can move onto pets and people, and some carry their own diseases, which is why a rodent problem often shows up alongside a flea problem.
Allergies and air quality
In Houston's humid attics, accumulated droppings, urine, and shed hair break down into dust that can trigger asthma and allergy symptoms. Clearing contaminated insulation is part of putting the home right, not just an add-on.
Fire and structural damage
Rats never stop gnawing. They chew wiring (a genuine fire hazard), damage insulation and ductwork, and work at wood and drywall, so an ignored infestation quietly gets more expensive the longer it runs.
Don't wait on a rodent problem
Annoying scratching and squeaking noises at night? It's possible that there's a rat infestation in your home. Rodents don't just damage food and property. By chewing through wiring they can create fire hazards, and they can spread infected fleas and ticks. The sooner you act, the easier the problem is to control.
Stampede's Houston rat and mouse exterminators remove the rodents you have, seal the entry points they're using, and put measures in place to keep them from coming back. Every service is backed by our 100% satisfaction guarantee. Reach out to us today to schedule an inspection.
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A large team of highly trained, licensed pest control technicians across Texas.
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If the problem isn't handled, we treat until it's gone, at no additional cost.
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We make same-day pest control a priority in most cases.
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Child- and pet-friendly products, with fully organic options and IPM techniques.
Why Texas homeowners choose Stampede
Same-day service in most cases
Dealing with pests is stressful, so we make it a priority to treat your home or business the same day whenever we can.
100% satisfaction guarantee
If the problem isn't handled right away, we treat your home or business until it's gone, at no additional cost to you.
Experienced, licensed technicians
A large team of highly trained technicians and the proper tools to do the job the right way the first time.
Organic & pet-friendly options
Child- and pet-friendly products, fully organic services, and IPM techniques that avoid over-spraying.
Frequently asked questions
Both roof rats and Norway rats. Roof rats climb and nest up high in attics and along the roofline, while Norway rats (sometimes called sewer rats) stay low, burrowing near slabs, garages, and along Houston's bayous and sewer lines. Because both are here, a proper job inspects the home top to bottom rather than assuming one or the other.
Heavy rain and flooding force Norway rats out of burrows and sewer lines and send them looking for high, dry ground. That's why homeowners often notice rats around garages and ground floors right after a bayou rises or the yard floods. Sealing the slab-level penetrations they use is the fix.
Yes. The Gulf Coast rarely gets the hard freeze that thins rodent numbers further inland, so Houston rats breed close to year-round and stay a threat in every season. An unsealed home is a target in January as much as in October.
The common entries are the weep holes in brick veneer, gaps under the garage door and around AC and utility line penetrations, openings in the soffit and roof vents, and broken or uncapped drain lines. Roof rats favor the roofline; Norway rats push in at ground level. We seal each with materials rodents can't chew through.
On its own, no. Bait can knock down the rats currently inside, but Houston's sewer and bayou network keeps a reservoir of rats nearby that simply refill an unsealed home. Poisoned rats also tend to die in wall voids and attics where they're hard to reach and smell for weeks. We trap the rats inside and seal the home so new ones can't take their place.
Yes. We remove droppings and contaminated, urine-soaked insulation, deodorize and disinfect the area, and address the conditions drawing rodents in. In a humid attic that cleanup matters for air quality, not just appearance.
Rodents rarely travel alone. If you're seeing other pests, we also handle Houston roach extermination, Houston bed bug treatment, and Houston mosquito control. Looking for rat removal in the Austin area instead? See our Austin rat removal service, or browse all the areas we service.
Rats or mice in your Houston home?
Call Stampede now for a free, instant quote. We'll get rid of all rodents quickly and safely, and we guarantee every service.