Pest Control in The Hills

What the ground here means for pests

The Hills sits west of RM 620 in far western Travis County, inside the Balcones Fault Zone where Cretaceous Edwards limestone has fractured into low benches, exposed bluffs, and shallow karst voids along Hurst Creek and the Lake Travis shoreline. The master-planned community's golf courses were cut and blasted directly into that broken rock, so many foundations rest on shallow soil over fractured stone rather than deep clay. City of Austin watershed mapping of the Balcones Fault Zone documents this kind of fractured limestone terrain as the source of the crevice and sinkhole habitat that runs through western Travis County, and in The Hills that same fracture pattern shows up at grade in stacked limestone retaining walls, rock-bordered planting beds, and slab-to-rock transitions, exactly the daytime shelter striped bark scorpions use within a few feet of exterior doors.

The community's irrigated golf courses and residential turf concentrate moisture in a landscape that would otherwise be dry Ashe juniper and live oak savanna, more moisture than the surrounding limestone benches hold on their own. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension notes that native subterranean termites have almost no tolerance for dehydration and must keep continuous soil contact or find an above ground moisture source to survive. Irrigated beds and turf that run right up against slab foundations, common in a golf community landscaped for curb appeal on rock that will not otherwise stay green, supply that moisture bridge, letting shelter tubes build against foundations even where the hillside a few yards away is bone dry.

Mature live oak canopy through the development connects rooflines from property to property along Flintrock Road and the interior streets. AgriLife Extension guidance on central Texas rodent pressure describes roof rats exploiting this kind of dense residential tree canopy, particularly live oaks, to travel between properties and reach rooflines, and The Hills' oak-lined lots and deep eaves give them that route directly into attics. The same damp, shaded microclimate under stone patios, golf cart garages, and limestone retaining walls also suits cave crickets, which AgriLife's field guide describes as sheltering by day in cool, dark, damp cracks and emerging at night, conditions this terrain provides in abundance.

The Hills on the map

Which pests are active, and when

Where homes here let pests in

• 1

  Slab foundations set on blasted and cut limestone

  Many lots in The Hills were graded by cutting or blasting directly into Edwards limestone. Where fill meets exposed rock at the foundation edge, small voids and seams form that give scorpions and ants a direct path under the slab perimeter.

• 2

  Stacked limestone retaining walls on sloped golf-adjacent lots

  The terrain along Hurst Creek and the golf corridors is steep enough that many yards use dry-stacked or mortared limestone retaining walls. The gaps between courses hold daytime shelter for scorpions and cave crickets within easy reach of the house.

• 3

  Stone and stucco exteriors with deep, oak-shaded eaves

  The development's dominant architecture uses deep roof overhangs and soffit returns that stay shaded and slightly damp under mature live oak canopy, giving roof rats a sheltered gnawing point at the roof-wall junction.

• 4

  Foundation-hugging irrigated beds on non-absorbent limestone ground

  Because native limestone soil drains fast and holds little moisture on its own, landscaping close to the house depends on regular irrigation. That moisture, sustained right against the slab, is the above ground water source subterranean termites need to survive without deep soil contact.