Pest Control in Katy, TX

Pest control in Katy, TX, where three counties meet

Katy, TX sits on the line where Harris, Fort Bend and Waller counties touch, and the pests don't check which county your fence is in. Whether you're in a 1990s two-story a mile off I-10 or a 2014 build out past the Grand Parkway (SH 99), one call puts you in touch with a licensed local exterminator who already works this side of west Houston.

Most Katy-area calls start small: droppings behind the water heater, scratching above a bedroom ceiling, winged insects at the back door after a spring storm. The pro you're connected with inspects first, tells you what they found, and quotes before any treatment starts. Same-day visits are often available, depending on the pest and the time you call.

What's bugging you?

Nine kinds of calls cover nearly everything Katy households deal with. Rats sit at the top of the list for a reason, so they come first here too.

Rats and mice

A 2025 Terminix rodent report, covered by Fox 26, put Houston seventh in the country for rodent-activity calls. Around Katy, roof rats run fence tops and utility lines up to attic vents, while house mice squeeze under worn garage door seals. Start with rat and mouse removal plus sealing, or read the signs that rats have moved into a Katy home.

Termites

Texas A&M lists Harris and Fort Bend among the counties with confirmed Formosan termites, alongside the native subterranean kind. On slab homes with brick veneer, the first clue is often a mud tube where the slab meets the brick. See how termite inspections and treatments work here.

Mosquitoes

Detention ponds, roadside ditches and clogged gutters keep Katy-area mosquitoes busy from late spring into fall. Public spraying covers streets, not your patio, so backyard mosquito treatments target the shady shrubs and standing water around your own house.

Cockroaches

German roaches live in kitchens and bathrooms and spread fast in apartments and rentals; the big American roaches come up from drains and garages after heavy rain. Here's how roach treatment that reaches the nest works.

Ants

Fire ant mounds pop up in new St. Augustine sod after a rain, and smaller ants trail across kitchen counters in summer. A pro can treat both, so look at ant control for yards and kitchens.

Bed bugs

Bed bugs usually ride home in luggage or a secondhand couch, and they hide in mattress seams and headboards. Get the details on bed bug inspection, heat and follow-up visits.

Bees and wasps

Paper wasps build under garage eaves every summer, and honey bees sometimes move into wall voids or soffits. Read about removing nests and hives safely before you reach for a can of spray.

Fleas and ticks

Pets bring fleas inside, and ticks wait in tall grass along greenbelts and trails. See flea and tick treatment for the house and yard.

Ongoing plans

If you'd rather stay ahead of all of it, a quarterly home pest plan covers the perimeter, garage and entry points on a set schedule.

City of Katy or the Katy area?

The City of Katy is small: 27,741 people in the Census Bureau's 2024 estimate. Most homes with a Katy address sit outside its limits in unincorporated Harris or Fort Bend County, in places like Cinco Ranch, Nottingham Country and Elyson. For pests, the line mostly decides who sprays your street for mosquitoes and who takes nuisance complaints.

About Katy, TX: The City of Katy had 27,741 residents in the Census Bureau's 2024 estimate, while the four Katy mailing ZIPs (77494, 77449, 77450 and 77493) hold about 414,000 people, per the Census American Community Survey (2020–2024). Katy spans three counties: Harris, Fort Bend and Waller.

The four Katy ZIP codes and their neighborhoods

Each Katy ZIP has its own mix of older and newer homes, and that mix shapes which pests show up first.

• 77494, south of I-10 and stretching west toward the Grand Parkway, takes in much of Cinco Ranch plus Firethorne. Its median home was built in 2011.
• 77493, north of I-10, holds Old Towne Katy, Cane Island and Elyson. It is the youngest of the four, with a median build year of 2014.
• 77450, on the east side toward Barker Reservoir, includes Nottingham Country and the eastern part of Cinco Ranch. Its median home dates to 1994.
• 77449, north of I-10 on the east side, covers subdivisions such as Canyon Lakes West, Westgate and Williamsburg, along with part of Elyson. The median build year there is 2004.

Inside the city limits you'll find Old Towne, Cane Island, Pin Oak Village, The Falls at Green Meadows and The Enclave. Elyson, Young Ranch and Firethorne carry Katy addresses but sit outside the city in unincorporated county land. For a closer look at the two biggest unincorporated areas, see Cinco Ranch pest control and older east Katy neighborhoods.

Buffalo Bayou, Barker Reservoir and the Cane Island Branch

Water shapes the pest calendar here. The Cane Island Branch, a tributary of Buffalo Bayou, runs through the older part of town, and the City of Katy ordered a flood study of it in 2016. Slow water in that channel and the roadside ditches that feed it is prime mosquito habitat after a summer storm.

East of the Katy ZIPs, Barker Reservoir is a flood-control structure that holds back water to protect Buffalo Bayou downstream, working alongside Addicks Reservoir. Large stretches of it stay wooded and grassy, which keeps mosquitoes, ticks and wildlife close to the neighborhoods on its edge.

Who sprays for mosquitoes depends on your address. Inside city limits, the City of Katy generally treats each part of town once a week, Monday through Thursday, from May through October. Unincorporated Fort Bend and Harris County homes fall under their counties' programs instead. Use the finder below to check yours.

The Katy pest year, month by month

Pests here follow the Gulf Coast weather more than the calendar. Termite swarms show up in spring, often on warm evenings after rain. Mosquito season runs through the hottest months, and fire ants rebuild mounds within days of a soaking. Once fall nights cool down, rats and mice start looking for warm attics, garages and wall voids.

The strip below shows what to watch for in Katy right now.

Cane Island, the Katy railroad and the 1944 rice driers

Before it was Katy, this was Cane Island, named for a creek lined with tall cane. The town took its later name from the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad, known as the "K-T" and then the "Katy," and it incorporated in 1945. A year earlier, in 1944, Katy got the first concrete rice driers in Texas, and they still stand as landmarks.

That rice-prairie past still matters for pests. Many of today's subdivisions were built on former fields and pasture, so the first homes on a new street often meet the field mice, fire ants and wildlife that lived there first.

Where else we take pest calls around Katy, TX

Beyond the two Katy-area pages, this site has a page for each nearby city: Fulshear, Sugar Land, Richmond, Rosenberg, Stafford, Brookshire and Prairie View.

Calls also come in from smaller towns and communities around the ring: Sealy in Austin County, Hempstead, Waller, Simonton, Pattison, Pecan Grove, Mission Bend and Weston Lakes, which has been its own city since 2008. Nearby west Houston ZIPs 77084, 77094, 77082, 77077 and 77083 are covered as well. The full list of areas we serve has a short note on each.

How Texas licenses pest control

In Texas, the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) licenses structural pest control through its Structural Pest Control Service. Each company carries a business license marked with a TPCL number, while every person spraying or baiting at your house needs an individual applicator or technician license. TDA advises homeowners to ask to see the license and to check that the TPCL number is displayed on the service vehicle. You can also search TDA's current license lists for businesses, applicators and technicians before anyone sprays your home.