Appleton, WI Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Sec. 7-67 requires anyone owning or controlling rubbish, boxes, lumber, scrap metal, car bodies or similar materials that provide rat harborage to remove the materials or store them to eliminate the harborage, with lumber and boxes neatly piled at least one foot above the ground; if the material owner cannot be found, the property owner or manager becomes responsible. Sec. 7-68 bars anyone from allowing accumulation of materials that could feed rats, requiring rat-food waste to be kept in ratproof containers and bird feed placed on raised platforms or otherwise kept inaccessible to rats.

Sec. 7-69(a) requires building owners or managers to make buildings reasonably ratproof, replace broken basement windows, and cover basement window openings with hardware cloth or similar material where needed. Sec. 7-69(b) extends this to sheds, barns, coops and similar structures, requiring owners to eliminate rat harborages by ratproofing, raising the structure off the ground, or another suitable method, or else raze the structure. Sec. 7-70(a) requires the Health Department to be notified when rat holes, burrows or other infestation evidence appear on residential premises; after verification, the Health Officer or designee notifies the owner and issues orders necessary to exterminate the rats.

Sec. 7-70(b) puts the extermination duty directly on the owner or manager for non-residential premises, and requires all rat holes and burrows to be filled with earth or other suitable material within 14 days after extermination. The definitions in Sec. 7-66 define hardware cloth, ratproof container, ratproofing, and rat harborage that anchor these obligations.