Animal Exclusion & Humane Live Trapping

Keep Them Out for Good: Animal Exclusion in Cypress, Spring and Houston

Getting an animal out of your attic is the easy part. Keeping the next one out is the job. That is what exclusion means: we find every way an animal is getting into your home, catch what is already inside alive, and seal the house so nothing gets back in.

This is the work Michael loves. Cypress Critters and Pests is owner-operated, and Michael does the work himself. He climbs the roof, crawls the attic, sets the traps and seals the gaps, and he stands behind it. If you are hearing scratching overhead at night, finding droppings in the attic or watching a raccoon walk your roofline, call or text 713-775-8799.

Why Trapping Alone Doesn’t Fix the Problem

A lot of companies set a trap, haul off one animal and call it done. A few weeks later you hear the same noise again. The animal was never the real problem. The open hole was.

Attics in the Houston area are warm, dry and quiet, which is exactly what a raccoon, a squirrel or a roof rat wants. They follow the smell of the animal that lived there before. As long as the opening is there, something will find it. Real exclusion breaks that cycle:

• Remove the animals that are inside, alive.
• Seal every entry point with materials they cannot chew or pull apart.
• Repair the damage they left, so the house goes back to being yours.

How Michael Does It, Step by Step

1. A real inspection, outside and in

We walk the whole house, not just the spot where you heard the noise. That means the roofline, the soffits and fascia, the roof returns where two rooflines meet, gable and attic vents, plumbing and air conditioning chases, the chimney, the garage door corners, the foundation and anything under a deck or slab. Inside the attic we look for tracks, droppings, nesting, chewed wiring and the paths they use. You get a straight answer about what is getting in, where, and what it will take to stop it.

2. Catch them alive

For wildlife we use live cage traps and one-way doors. A one-way door lets an animal leave the attic on its own and keeps it from coming back in. Cage traps are set where the animal actually travels and checked often. Animals caught on your property are removed alive and handled following Texas Parks and Wildlife rules. Protected animals are handled the way the state requires.

In spring and early summer we check for babies before anything gets sealed. A mother raccoon or squirrel shut out of the attic will tear a new hole to get back to her young, and babies left behind die in the walls. Doing it in the right order is the difference between a fixed house and a worse problem.

3. Seal every entry point

Once the animals are out, every opening gets closed with materials built for the job: heavy galvanized mesh and hardware cloth, metal flashing, vent covers, chimney caps and sealant for the small gaps rodents use. A roof rat can get through a hole about the size of a quarter, and a squirrel can chew through soft materials in an afternoon. We seal for the animal that is trying to get in, not just for looks.

4. Repair and clean up

Animals leave damage behind: torn soffits, chewed vents, soiled and flattened insulation, droppings and smell. We fix the openings they made and clean up after them, so you are not living with what they left.

Where Animals Get Into Houses Around Here

• Roof returns and soffits: one of the most common raccoon and squirrel entry points on two-story homes. A small gap where two rooflines meet becomes a door.
• Gable and attic vents: thin screens tear easily. Raccoons pull them off; squirrels and rats chew around them.
• Plumbing and A/C chases: the gaps around pipes and lines coming through the roof or walls are rat and mouse highways.
• Chimneys: an uncapped chimney is a hollow tree to a raccoon, and birds and bats use them too.
• Garage door corners and the foundation: rodents slip under worn seals, and opossums and skunks move in under slabs, decks and sheds.

Exclusion for Each Animal

Raccoons

Strong, smart and destructive. Raccoons rip open soffits and vents and nest in attics, especially in spring when they have young. We remove them alive, check for babies, and seal the roofline with material they cannot pull apart.

Squirrels

Squirrels chew. Their entry holes are usually round and clean at the edges of the roofline, and they chew wiring once inside. One-way doors get them out; metal closes the holes.

Roof rats and mice

Roof rats are common across the Houston area and come in from the trees and the roof. Trapping inside only works if every gap is sealed outside, so for rats and mice, exclusion is the real fix.

Opossums and skunks

These usually move in low: under decks, sheds, slabs and crawl spaces. We catch them alive and close off the space with buried mesh so they cannot dig back under.

Bats and birds

Bats are never trapped. They are excluded with one-way devices at the right time of year, so no young are trapped inside. Birds nesting in vents and chimneys get the vent screened and the chimney capped.

Snakes

Snakes follow the rats and mice. Sealing the house and cutting off the rodents is the long-term fix, and we remove snakes found in and around the home.

Signs You Need Exclusion, Not Just a Trap

• Scratching, running or thumping in the attic or walls, especially at dusk or before dawn.
• You trapped an animal before and the noise came back.
• Torn soffits, bent vent covers or chewed holes along the roofline.
• Droppings, flattened insulation or a strong smell in the attic.
• Chewed wiring, or lights and outlets acting up after you heard animals.
• Animals going under your deck, slab or shed.

What Exclusion Costs

Every house is different, so we price it after we see it. What moves the price: how many entry points there are and how high they sit, what kind of animal it is and how many, whether babies are involved, and how much repair and cleanup the attic needs. Trapping without sealing looks cheaper and costs more when you pay for it twice. Call 713-775-8799 and we will tell you plainly what your house needs.

Where We Work

We do exclusion and live trapping from Conroe to Galveston, including Cypress, Spring, Tomball, The Woodlands, Klein, Conroe, Houston and Galveston. Homes and businesses both. See the animals we handle on our wild animal control page.

Hear something in the attic? Call or text Michael at 713-775-8799, day or night.