Four species, four different jobs
The state data lists roof rats, Norway rats, house mice and deer mice, and the one you have decides where the money goes. Roof rats are the reason for ceiling noise. They climb, nest above the living space, and feed outside, so the whole plan lives at the roof edge: trim what touches the roof, screen the vents in metal, and close the gap where the fascia meets the deck. Norway rats are heavier and dig. Look for burrow openings along a foundation, under a deck, beside a shed, often with a worn path leading away. The work for them is at grade: door sweeps, closing gaps at the base of the wall, and traps set at the burrows themselves. House mice live entirely indoors once established, keep a home range measured in feet, and need almost no free water. Their droppings mark a single runway, and sealing pipe and wiring penetrations plus a dozen traps usually finishes it. Deer mice stay in sheds, garages and outbuildings, especially near open ground, and they matter mostly because of cleanup practice. Ask whichever company you call which of the four they think is present in your San Jose home, and what evidence points that way.
Why the state's bait rules push everyone toward traps
Start with the wildlife problem, because that is what drove the restrictions. A rat that eats an anticoagulant bait stays alive for days and becomes slow, which makes it easy prey for a hawk, an owl, a coyote or a neighborhood cat. The poison travels up with the meal. That is the background to what UC IPM describes as a prohibition on most uses of second- and first-generation anticoagulants in California. Brodifacoum, bromadiolone, difethialone, diphacinone, chlorophacinone and warfarin cannot be applied in most areas. Bromethalin, cholecalciferol and zinc phosphide are still available under limits. For a homeowner the effect is straightforward: the plan you should expect is trapping paired with physical exclusion. That turns out to be the better method indoors regardless of the law, because a trapped animal is a removed animal you can count, and nothing dies inside a wall cavity you cannot open. Use it as a screening question when you compare companies. A proposal built around exterior bait stations and monthly service is not the direction either the regulations or the biology point.
Garages, backyard units and the second perimeter
In an expensive housing market, properties get denser. Garages become offices and studios, sheds become storage, and backyard units go up behind existing houses. Each one is a separate building envelope, and rodents treat them as easier targets than the main house. Garages are usually the weakest point. The bottom seal on a roll-up door wears down until daylight shows at the corners, which is more than the half-inch gap a rat needs. Side doors often lack sweeps entirely. Wall penetrations for electrical and water runs to a converted space get drilled oversize and rarely get sealed properly afterward. Storage makes it worse. Cardboard boxes on a concrete floor supply nesting material, and bags of pet food, birdseed or fertilizer supply the rest. A garage stocked like that is a better home than most attics. When you get quotes for a San Jose property with more than one structure, make sure each building appears on the proposal with its own list of openings. Sealing the house while the studio out back stays open just moves the colony a few steps and buys you a quieter month.
Questions worth asking before you book anyone
You can sort out most of the difference between companies over the phone, before anyone charges you for a visit. Ask whether the inspection includes going into the attic and the crawl space or the slab perimeter, and whether you get photographs. A walk-through of the living room tells nobody anything about where animals enter. Ask what materials they use to close openings. If the answer is expanding foam and caulk, keep calling. You want hardware cloth, sheet metal, copper mesh and mortar, with sealant used to hold metal in place rather than as the barrier itself. Ask how many trapping visits come with the price, and what happens if catches are still coming when those run out. That is where a low quote quietly turns into an open-ended bill. Ask whether cleanup and insulation replacement are included or separate. And ask what any warranty actually covers, how long it lasts, and whether it survives roof work or new landscaping. Four short questions will tell you more about a company than any amount of marketing.
Condos, shared walls and getting the building fixed
In a stacked or attached building, one unit is never the whole problem. rodents travel through party walls, plumbing chases, shared attics and the space above dropped ceilings, so an animal removed from your kitchen may simply relocate two doors down and come back. The division of responsibility usually follows the same logic everywhere: the interior of your unit is yours, and the building shell, roof, common attic and exterior walls belong to the association or the owner. That means the sealing that ends the problem is often not yours to schedule, which is frustrating and worth planning around. So build a record. Photograph droppings with a coin for scale, log the dates and times you hear activity, and report it in writing rather than in a hallway conversation. Ask neighbors whether they are hearing anything, because two or three reports move a board or a manager far faster than one. If you own a unit, push for the inspection to cover the whole structure rather than your walls alone. Building-wide exclusion costs more once and less over five years than repeated single-unit trapping.