Pet-Safe Rodent Control: The Complete Guide for Southern California

The Two Risks Pet Owners Must Understand

Most pest control companies use rodenticide bait for gopher and ground squirrel control because it is inexpensive and fast. For households with pets, this creates two distinct poisoning risks.

Direct Exposure Risk

Gophers and ground squirrels routinely push bait pellets out of their burrows onto the surface. Poison placed underground by a technician can appear on your lawn within hours. Any dog or cat that investigates the yard can find and eat this bait.

Secondary Poisoning Risk

When a dog eats a gopher or ground squirrel that has consumed rodenticide, the dog ingests poison stored in the prey animal's liver and tissue. This is how most pet rodenticide fatalities occur — not from eating bait directly, but from eating a poisoned animal.

How Trapping Eliminates Both Risks

Professional traps are set inside burrow systems, completely below the surface. There is no bait placed in the yard — no substance that can be pushed to the surface, and no chemical that can be absorbed by prey animals and subsequently poison a pet.

Pets can use the yard normally throughout and after treatment. No waiting period, no surface residue, no ongoing risk once the active population is removed.

What Pet-Safe Actually Means

• No rodenticide bait of any kind — not underground, not in bait stations, not anywhere on the property
• No surface chemicals that can be contacted by pets
• No treated rodent carcasses that can be consumed by pets
• Trapping only — mechanical removal with no chemical involvement

Southern California Service

Chemical-free trapping service is available throughout Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties. All service is backed by a 60-day guarantee. Call 909-599-4711.