Rodent control and rat proofing for homes in Ho Chi Minh City

Homes in Ho Chi Minh City usually meet three kinds of rodent: the sewer rat, the roof rat and the house mouse. Each moves in its own way, so rodent proofing starts with knowing where they are coming from.

Sewer rat

Large and heavy-bodied, a good burrower and swimmer. It comes from sewers, drain pits and drainage channels into yards, laundry areas and ground-floor bathrooms, and is common in townhouses and villas near canals.

Roof rat

Slender with a long tail, and an agile climber. It uses branches that touch the roof, electrical cables and vertical drainpipes to reach metal roofs, plasterboard ceilings and roof terraces.

House mouse

Small enough to pass through a very narrow gap. It nests in kitchen cabinets, under appliances and in service ducts, and can turn up even in high-rise apartments, arriving with goods or through the service shafts.

Droppings, gnaw marks, dark smears and nesting material are the usual signs. Rodents are active mainly at night, so households tend to notice traces before they see an animal: elongated droppings scattered along the base of walls, fresh gnaw marks on packaging and electrical cable, dark smears along the routes they use, and scraps of paper and cloth gathered into a nest in a hidden corner.

Rodents spoil food and belongings and may gnaw electrical cable. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) state that rodents can carry certain diseases, among them leptospirosis, which is spread through rodent urine. Dealing with them early and cleaning up correctly matter as much as catching them.

During the survey your Up specialist lists every gap a rodent could use. Those that can be closed with mesh, covers or ordinary filler go into the plan and the quote. Anything that needs cutting, masonry or structural work is recorded so that you can appoint a suitable contractor. In an apartment, points in common areas are noted for you to raise with building management. The gaps most often missed are:

• Drain openings, floor-drain grates and drain pits on the property with a missing or loose cover.
• Gaps around anything that passes through a wall: aircon copper pipes, water pipes and electrical conduit.
• Service-duct doors and ceiling access hatches that do not close tightly.
• The gap under roller shutters, garage doors and the back door of the kitchen, and vents without mesh.
• The edges of a metal roof, the joint between roof and wall, and branches that touch the roof or come close to a balcony.

Note which rooms you hear the noise in and at roughly what time, and do not scatter bait in the ceiling yourself; that is all that is needed before the survey. Running and gnawing sounds above a plasterboard ceiling or metal roof at night are usually roof rats, sometimes house mice that have followed aircon pipes or cables up. In a ceiling void they can gnaw cable insulation, tear insulation sheets and leave droppings and urine that smell for a long time.

UpClean's technicians inspect through the ceiling access hatch and note the traces and the ways up, such as branches touching the roof, gaps at the eaves and pipe holes. Mechanical traps are usually preferred in a ceiling, so that rodents are collected where they are caught and fewer die out of sight and cause a smell. Your Up specialist proposes sealing the gaps that can be reached and records those that need a builder or building management.

Poison pellets, loose bait and repeller devices are easy to buy, and each has limits. Bait scattered freely indoors can leave a rodent to crawl into a wall or ceiling and die out of sight, causing a smell whose source is hard to find, and it is a risk to young children and pets. A repeller does not replace sealing the way in: as long as an entry point is open and there is food in the house, rodents have a reason to return.

The way UpClean works combines four parts: identifying the species and its routes; catching and killing with traps and lockable bait stations set by UpClean's own pest-control technicians; sealing the entry points; and cleaning and deodorising where rodents have sheltered, which removes the scent trails that guide others. If one part is missing, the result rarely lasts.

If you have seen a single stray mouse, you can set a mechanical trap where children and pets cannot reach it, shut food away and keep bins covered. If you use a rodenticide, choose one with a valid registration number in Vietnam, read the label carefully, and never leave bait exposed in a home with young children, dogs or cats. Call a rodent control service when traces appear in several rooms, when you hear noise in the ceiling several nights in a row, when rodents return after being caught, or when there is a smell you cannot trace.

Pest exterminator

For cockroaches or ants found at the same survey, which can go into the same written quote.

Indoors, traps are usually preferred, and bait is kept inside locked stations out of reach. The layout is decided by UpClean's technicians after the survey, according to the species, the level of activity and who lives in the home, so tell us at the survey if you have young children or pets. The principles are these:

Mechanical traps indoors

Usually preferred in kitchens, ceilings and indoor storerooms because the rodent is caught on the spot, which limits the cases where one dies unseen in a wall or ceiling and causes a smell. Traps are checked on schedule and anything caught is removed straight away.

Lockable bait stations

Closed boxes with a locking lid, set along boundary walls, around the house and in service areas. The bait stays inside, where young children and pets cannot touch it. The position of every station is marked on a plan in the Up Report, the record we send after each visit.

Monitoring and adjustment

After each check the technicians move or add traps and stations according to fresh traces. The work ends when there are no more signs of activity.

What we ask of you

Do not move or open a bait station, and tell us at once if a pet shows any unusual symptoms.

Droppings and urine are wetted before they are wiped up, and a smell is dealt with at its source. They should not be swept dry or vacuumed directly, because that can send the dirt into the air as dust. CDC guidance is to wet the affected area with a disinfectant solution, leave it to soak for a while and then wipe it up with disposable cloths, wearing gloves. Your Up specialist works this way when cleaning kitchen cabinets, storerooms and the space under the stairs after treatment.

A lingering smell usually comes from a carcass or nest that has been left behind. Where it can be reached, your Up specialist removes it, cleans the spot and treats the odour at the source without masking it with fragrance. If the carcass is inside a closed ceiling or wall, an access hatch is opened or a ceiling panel taken down only with your agreement, and where a specialist tradesperson is needed UpClean says so and leaves the decision to you.

Disinfection and odour removal

For a smell that has soaked into a mattress, sofa or wardrobe.

Traps and bait stations are only part of the answer. Whether rodents come back depends largely on food, shelter and any entry point that was missed. Once monitoring has finished, these habits help the household keep the result:

• Store rice, cereals and pet food in rigid plastic or glass containers with lids, and do not leave pet bowls out overnight.
• Use bins with lids and take rubbish out every evening. Keep the sink strainer and floor-drain grates in place.
• Keep storerooms and the space under the stairs tidy, with items raised off the floor and away from the wall so that fresh traces are easy to spot.
• Cut back branches close to the roof or balcony, and check drain-pit covers after any pipe repair.
• If you see fresh droppings or hear noises again, send photos to UpClean so that we can check again under the warranty, where one applies.

UpClean does not list a rate for rodent control. The survey is free. The all-inclusive quote that follows, in writing, lists the number of points to seal, the number of traps and bait stations, the number of return checks, the scope of cleaning and deodorising, and the warranty terms. The price varies with:

• The size of the property and the number of floors, and whether it has a garden, basement, metal roof or plasterboard ceiling.
• The number and type of gaps to seal, and which items need a separate contractor.
• How active the rodents are and how many return checks are needed.
• The amount of cleaning and deodorising in the kitchen, storerooms and ceiling afterwards.

Areas we cover

Surveys are arranged regularly in An Khanh ward (Sala, Thu Thiem, Thao Dien), Binh Trung, Cat Lai, Phu My Hung (Tan My and Tan Hung wards), Thanh My Tay (Binh Thanh), former Districts 1, 3 and 4, former Phu Nhuan and Nha Be commune. In Districts 5, 6, 8, 10, 11 and 12, Go Vap, Tan Binh, Tan Phu and former District 9, the survey date is confirmed when you book. The city replaced its districts with wards in July 2025, but people still use the district names, so we do too.