Wildlife Removal in Dallas, TX

How Our Animal Removal Works, Step by Step

1. 1

   Call and say where it is

   Tell us what you have heard or seen: scratching over a bedroom, a smell in one wall, a hole at the roofline. We also ask about children and pets.

2. 2

   Inspect the house, roof to ground

   The wildlife inspection covers the attic, the crawl space if the house has one, the roofline and soffits, the vents and the chimney. Outside, the technician checks under decks and sheds and marks every way in.

3. 3

   Hear what it is and what it costs

   Droppings, tracks and the shape of the opening show which animal it is. The technician explains the method that fits it and gives the price of the wildlife removal; work starts only after your yes.

4. 4

   Get the animal out

   The technician fits the one-way door or sets the trap the species calls for, then checks it until the animal is out. With bats in summer, this step waits for the young to fly.

5. 5

   Close the way in and clean up

   Every opening marked in step 2 is closed, and the droppings and soiled insulation are cleaned out of the attic.

6. 6

   Your findings, in writing

   They name the animal and the way it got in, then list what was used and where, including each opening we closed.

To set up the wildlife inspection, call (972) 573-9907 at any hour.

Which Animal Is It?

Each animal gets in its own way, and we get each one out the way its species needs.

Raccoons, Squirrels, Bats and More in DFW Homes

Wild animals get into DFW houses through the same few openings, and our inspection checks each one:

• Where the roof meets the house. Dallas Animal Services tells residents to repair rotted boards, warped siding and loose shingles along that line. Each gap there is a way into the attic for squirrels, raccoons and bats.
• Vents. Gable, ridge and crawl space vents need heavy-gauge, rustproof wire mesh over them, the city adds, not chicken wire. Birds nest in the ones left open.
• The chimney. Without a secure cap, it is an open shaft from the roof into the house.
• Under porches, decks and sheds. Opossums, skunks and snakes settle at ground level. Frisco lists the space under porches, along with attics, as places animals den.

Most DFW houses sit on a concrete slab, so an animal that gets inside usually ends up in the attic or the walls. Older pier-and-beam houses also have a crawl space under the floor.

Food and a place to den draw them to one house over the next. Frisco's list starts with garbage cans left uncovered and pet food set outside.

Removal First, Then the Way In Closed

The method is wildlife exclusion: the animal goes out first, through a one-way door wherever its species allows, and the openings are closed behind it. Each animal on our list goes out its own way:

• Raccoons, opossums and skunks leave through a one-way door or are taken alive in a cage trap.
• Squirrels mostly leave through a one-way door fitted over the hole they use.
• Bats fly out through one-way devices and cannot get back in. From May 1 to August 15 their young cannot fly yet, and Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPWD) discourages shutting bats out of a building in those months. The devices go up once the young can fly.
• Birds are screened out of vents and other openings. Native birds are protected by state and federal law, and a swallow nest may come down only when it holds no eggs or chicks. Starlings, house sparrows and feral pigeons are the exceptions.
• Snakes are caught with a snake tool or a funnel trap. Many Texas snakes are protected by state law, and Texas A&M advises contacting TPWD before a captured snake is moved.
• Moles are trapped in their tunnels in the yard.

With the animals out, the openings are closed: hardware cloth over vents and gaps, steel flashing at the roofline and a cap on the chimney.

Animal removal on its own does not end the problem. Irving says trapping and removing wildlife “simply creates a vacancy for another wild animal to move in,” and Dallas, Arlington and Frisco say much the same. That is why our wildlife removal does not stop at the trap.

Where a one-way door works, nothing has to be moved. Arlington and Frisco both note that relocated wildlife rarely survives more than two weeks.

Signs of an Animal in the Attic or Walls

You will often hear an animal in the attic before you see one. Listen and look for:

• Scratching, scurrying or thumping in the ceiling or inside a wall. The time of day you hear it helps tell one animal from another.
• A hole or a chewed edge at the roofline, a torn vent screen or a soffit panel pushed loose.
• Droppings on the attic floor, or insulation that is flattened or torn up.
• Bats slipping out of a gap near the roof at dusk.
• Birds flying in and out of a vent, or nest material sticking out of it.
• A fresh hole dug under a porch, deck or shed, or raised ridges across the lawn where moles tunnel.

Leave what you find as it is: droppings, chewed edges and holes show the technician the way in. Keep children and pets away from the spot and call (972) 573-9907.

If the inspection finds roof rats instead, we handle those through our rat control service.

Wildlife Control Across Dallas⁠–⁠Fort Worth

DFW Pest Guard handles wildlife removal in Dallas, Collin, Tarrant and Denton counties, from Dallas and Fort Worth to suburbs like Plano, Irving and Arlington. Our wildlife control work is for homes only: houses, townhomes and apartments people live in.

The service areas page lists the cities we cover. To have a technician come out, call (972) 573-9907.

Questions About Animals in the House