Mesa County, CO Public Health Rules: Bed-Bug Rules (2026)

Bed bugs get one specific mention in Mesa County's pest and sanitation rules: Section 3.02 of the Infestation and Rodent Harborage Code defines "Insects" to mean "all species of classes of Arachnida and Insecta... and includes all flies, mosquitoes, bed bugs, crickets, cockroaches, moths, bees, wasps, hornets, yellow jackets, fleas, lice, beetles, weevils, gnats, ants, termites, mites, ticks, spiders, scorpions, and other similar species." From there, bed bugs fall under the same generic owner/occupant duties that apply to every insect on that list; the code doesn't carve out a bed-bug-specific chapter, disclosure form, or remediation timeline the way some city landlord-tenant codes do.

Section 4.02 requires that "every occupant of a dwelling unit shall actively eliminate the conditions that lead to pest infestations such as accumulation of food, water, and harborage," and Section 4.03 makes occupants "responsible for the control of vermin, insects, and/or rodents on the premises," while shifting that responsibility to the owner "if infestation is caused by failure of the owner to maintain the premises in a condition that promotes a rodent-proof or insect-proof environment." Because bed bugs typically spread through infested furniture, luggage or shared walls rather than sanitation failures, most real-world disputes turn on which party's conduct or unit condition caused the spread, which the code leaves to be sorted out case by case rather than through a bright-line disclosure duty.

Enforcement follows the rest of the rule: Code Compliance Services or Mesa County Public Health investigates on complaint under Section V, and the Board of Public Health can pursue "criminal and civil actions and penalties, injunctions, and abatement" under Section VI against whichever party's failure caused the infestation to continue.