Rodents
Gulf Coast Pest Control can help you take back your property.
Our technicians will inspect your property for signs of previous or
current rodent activity and Should their be a need, then the technician
will develop a plan to remove your varmints or prevent their
entry. We offer a verity of rodent control,
removal and exclusion services. In most cases a 1 year Warranty is
included with an exclusion service.
Never just throw rodent bait around in your attic.
you
may have to live with a dead rat odor for weeks.
not
to mention the flies.
Rodent bait never
makes rats go outside for water.
Rat Biology / Signifigance as pests
Rats are rodents of the genus Rattus who have been living in close (but usually not happy) association with humans for thousands of years. There are good reasons why people throughout human history have disliked rats:
Health risks associated with rats
Health Risks Associated with Rats
Rats in the wild are known to be involved in the transmission of many serious diseases including plague, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, murine typhus, rat-bite fever, salmonella, and leptospirosis. Rats also are involved in the transmission cycle of lyme disease, encephalitis, and other arboviral diseases vectored by their fleas, ticks, mites, and other parasites
Economic effects of Rats
Rats also cause considerable economic damage. Like all rodents, rats have sharp teeth and powerful jaws (they can chew through concrete), and can damage homes, barns, grain silos, and other buildings.
Rats chewing through wires cause an untold number of fires every year. Rats also cause crop damage by their feeding activities, and contaminate millions of pounds of stored food and animal feed with their urine, droppings, and shed hairs. In fact, rats contaminate more food with their filth than they actually consume.
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Rat nest |
Mouse droppings |
Rat droppings |
Chewed wires |
Rat species found in texas
There are 3 main species of rats and mice that are of significance in the United States and Texas. They are the Roof Rat (Rattus rattus) or tree Rat, the Norway Rat (Rattus norvegicus) or ground rat, and the House Mouse. Of course there are lots of other species such as field mice, field rats, wharf rats, sewer rats, etc.. but the Roof Rats and Norway Rats and the House Mouse are the ones of primary importance. They are the species of commensally rodents that homeowners and building owners deal with 90% of the time.
Roof rats live in trees in nature and are skilled aerialists. They are expert climbers and have excellent balance, and they often run along tree limbs, utility wires, and even clotheslines to get into attics, soffits, and other parts of buildings. Once inside, they run along hard-to-reach structural members such as beams, joists, and suspended pipes, making roof rat trapping a real challenge.
Norway rats are burrowers by nature and usually stay close to the ground (although they can climb very well when necessary). They usually enter buildings through holes and other structural defects, utility and plumbing chase ways, crawl spaces, and through gaps under doors. Once inside, they can easily travel through walls, chase ways, and other structural voids.
Do Not Use Rat Baits Indoors !
We do not recommend using rat baits or rodenticides indoors. If a rodent eats a rodenticide indoors, unless it can find its way out of the structure before the effects of the rodenticide
set in - usually 3 to 5 days, it can often times die indoors. There is no such thing as a rodenticide or a rat bait that causes the rodent to become thirsty and look for water.
They are simply anti-coagulants or blood thinners.
There is also no such thing as a rodenticide that causes the rodents body to not smell or to dry out during the rotting phase. These "white lies" are used by exterminators and other rodent control novices because tossing rat bait into an attic is easy and inexpensive.
Squirrels
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Squirrel |
Squirrel nest |
Droppings |
Chewed wires |
Squirrels are furry rodents who survive mainly on nuts and grains. There are many species of squirrels, but the three most commonly found in Texas are the grey squirrel, the flying squirrel, and the Eastern chipmunk.
Like all rodents, squirrels have sharp, strong teeth and powerful jaws that enable them to chew holes through most building materials and to get into buildings. Grey squirrels and flying squirrels often become a nuisance and cause damage when they get into attics or chew holes in roofs, eaves, gutters, and soffits.
Squirrels can also create a fire hazard when they chew or gnaw on electrical wiring.
In addition, squirrels' urine, droppings, shed hairs, and parasites also create a health hazard when they move into buildings; and dead squirrels' bodies can cause odors and serve as a breeding medium for flies when squirrels die in wall and ceiling voids, soffits, and other inaccessible areas.
That's why squirrel control and squirrel removal is a job for the professionals at Gulf Coast Pest Control.
We are Houston's rodent / small animal control experts.
Our animal control technicians not only have the skills, the tools, and the know-how to trap and remove squirrels.
They are also experts in squirrel exclusion and repairing non carpentry squirrel damage to keep squirrels out of attics, soffits, barns, silos, and anywhere else they are creating a nuisance.
Nutria Rat
 The nutria, Myocastor coypus, ( mouse beaver ) is a large semi-aquatic rodent. First introduced in the 1930's. Released from fur farms by accident or intentionally. Soon Feral populations were established along the gulf coast.
In most of the world the animal is called coypu, but in North America the animal is called nutria. In the rest of the world, nutria is the name of the fur of the animal.
Males are slightly larger then females. Nutria weigh about 12 lbs. Nutria breed year round. Males reach puberty at between 4 - 9 months. Females between 3 - 9 months. Gestation period of 130 days. In 1 year a female can produce 2 liters and be pregnant with the third. 4 - 5 out of a possible 13 survive. Females can breed again with in a day of having a liter.
ARE NUTRIA DIRTY ANIMALS?
 NO! Quite the contrary. Nutria occurring in the wild are clean animals. Contrary to their look-alikes, rats, which are omnivores, nutria consume exclusively plant life.
Beavers
 Beaver, the largest European aquatic representative of the mammalian order Rodentia, easily recognized by its large trowel-like, scaly tail, which is expanded in the horizontal direction.
Beavers are best known for their natural trait of building dams in rivers and streams and building their homes Lodges in the eventual pond they are the second-largest rodent in the world after the capybara.
Beavers continue to grow throughout life. Adults weighing over 55 lb are not uncommon. Females are as large as or larger than males of the same age, which is uncommon among mammals.
Beavers are essentially aquatic in their habits, never traveling by land unless driven by necessity. Formerly common in England, the European beaver has not only been exterminated there, but likewise in most of the countries of the continent, although a few remain on the Elbe, the Rhone and in parts of Scandinavia. The American species is also greatly diminished in numbers from incessant pursuit for the sake of its valuable fur.
 Beavers are sociable animals, living in streams, where, so as to render the water of sufficient depth, they build dams of mud and of the stems and boughs of trees felled by their powerful incisor teeth. In the
neighborhood they make their "lodges," which are roomy chambers, with the entrance beneath the water. The mud is plastered down by the fore-feet, and not, as often supposed, by the tail, which is employed solely as a rudder.
The true beaver (Castor fiber) is a native of Europe and northern Asia, but it is represented in North America by a closely-allied species ( canadensis), chiefly distinguished by the form of the nasal bones of the skull
They always work in the night and with great expedition. They cover their houses late every autumn with fresh mud, which, freezing when the frost sets in, becomes almost as hard as stone, so that neither wolves nor wolverines can disturb their repose.
Gulf Coast Pest Control
can help you take back your property!
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