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

City of Beloit Code of Ordinances § 7.23(5) puts extermination of insects, rodents, vermin and other pests in exterior property areas on the property owner, with one carve-out: a nonowner occupant of a single-family dwelling is responsible for exterior pest control at that dwelling. Wherever infestation reaches shared or public parts of a multi-unit property, the owner is responsible regardless of who occupies which unit.

Section 7.25(6) extends the duty indoors, requiring every structure to be kept free of insect, rodent and vermin infestation and requiring prompt extermination by methods that won't harm human health, with precautions afterward to stop reinfestation. In a 2-family or multifamily dwelling, the owner must handle extermination whenever infestation reaches 2 or more units or common areas; an occupant is responsible only when the infestation is confined to that occupant's own unit. If rodent infestation traces back to the owner's failure to keep the building rodent-proof, the owner remains responsible even in a single infested unit.

Related structural duties back this up: basement windows must carry mesh screens no coarser than one-sixteenth inch under § 7.24(9)(i), and every exterior wall, roof and foundation must be maintained to exclude rodents under § 7.24(1). Wood piles stored outside must be neatly stacked, and if there's evidence of rodent infestation, the Director of Community and Housing Services can order the owner to raise the wood off the ground under § 7.23(11)(a).