Carrollton, TX Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

003, defines 'public nuisance' to include three specific feeding practices: storing food in a manner that may attract rodents or other vermin, feeding birds or other wildlife in a manner that may attract rodents or other vermin, and allowing an accumulation of food, food waste or animal waste in a manner that may attract rodents or other vermin. The same definition also covers any property condition that renders the ground, water, air or food hazardous to human or animal health, and any condition conducive to breeding flies, mosquitoes, ticks or fleas.

010(B) turns that definition into an offense: it is unlawful for the owner or tenant of any property, occupied or unoccupied, to cause, suffer, permit or allow the property to contribute to a public nuisance. Subsection (C) of the same section separately bans letting flies, mosquitoes or other insects breed in water troughs, bowls, tanks or other containers. 04(B)-(C) independently bans keeping refuse, trash or debris that creates an unsanitary condition likely to attract or harbor mosquitoes, rodents, vermin or disease-carrying pests, and bans any standing water in an excavation, container, pool or spa likely to do the same.

Both provisions apply citywide, across Carrollton's territory in Dallas, Denton and Collin counties, and neither requires the owner to actually live on the property; a landlord of a vacant rental is just as liable as an occupying homeowner. Enforcement runs through Animal Services and the Designated City Official, the City Manager or a designee, who investigate nuisance complaints and can refer repeat violators for prosecution.