It’s spring!

And sure, you might think about showers, flowers and warming up, but for our Texas wildlife it’s baby season and expectant parents are nesting all across the Lone Star state. Right now they are scouting out the best places to raise their young, and they might be hand picking your residence as prime real estate.  

“We are in Spring and what are rodents doing? Especially raccoons are they’re looking for that spot to have their babies,” says Rene Salazar, Rodent Supervisor at ABC Home and Commercial Services. 

So if you’re hearing something that goes bump in the night, enlist some professionals to find the rodent that’s been breaking and entering your home. It will surprise you how much detective work goes into capturing a rodent and Manuel Ortiz and Rene Salazar are like Sherlock and Watson on the scene. First, they look for clues...

“This sticks to him when he comes out. It falls and usually means you have damage to parts of the roof,” says Manuel as he discovers roofing debris on the ground. 

This is our first evidence of an intruder. Now Manual does a close walk around inspection of the home to look for rodent entry points. 

After clearing the front of the house, Manuel uses a retractable mirror around the bottom of the siding and finds a trouble spot, “When you look at it from here you can see that there’s a big gap in between the siding here and that’s what that’s what will allow a smaller rodent around to get up from the ground and pop their way right up inside,” says Manuel. 

Then, as soon as we turn to the back corner of the home, one rodent entry point becomes very obvious, as a massive hole in the roofline appears. 

“They were able to follow right from the bottom and just as easily climb up this old piece of wood here and they’re able to stand, chew and pull on these areas here.” says Manuel pointing out how easy the rodent had it getting into this spot. He also points out that this animal had to be smart with a lot of dexterity because they could unscrew the vent from its brackets to gain entry. 

The next step is to walk on the roof. Upon stepping on the roof, Manuel finds another entry point through pulled up shingles. 

“That’s what they’re looking for, areas like these broken shingles on the house. Anytime they find something like that, they are going to chew, scratch and make it a point to get in. And they’ll continue to use that spot to come in and out in the future,” says Manuel. 

After putting the clues together, we’re getting pretty certain what species our rodent is. “Judging by the damage and by what’s left by that entry over there on the other side of the house, I’d definitely suspect it’s a raccoon. The late night hours they’re hearing the noise is there is another indicator and how loud it’s been whenever they do hear it,” says Manuel. 

But you can’t be sure until you venture into the attic and lock eyes on the culprit. 

In the attic, more clues arise, “The insulation is pushed out of the way. It’s being used in that area to the pop out of. I’m trying to see - there are a bunch of foot prints over there, raccoon foot prints right there. “

The proof is in the prints! This raccoon has been caught red-handed!

So Manuel and Rene set a trap and monitor it. 

Rene jokes, “We are not done until we have evacuated everyone for their home that’s not paying rent. Other than children, of course.”

After waiting the next day, they catch our bandit. Rene says he has a secret recipe for baiting ring tails. 

“I’ve found with ringtails we have a better chance of catching them with honey buns as bait,” says Rene. 

And any season of the year, Jose and Albert pride themselves in safeguarding homes.
“At Christmas, I love my saying, not even a mouse!” says Rene.