East Orange, NJ Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Section 282-4 of the Nuisances chapter bars anyone from feeding or making food, garbage, bird feed or other organic matter accessible to mice, rats or other rodents, from harboring rodents on public or private property, and from letting wood, rocks, construction material or other debris accumulate where it could shelter them; the section exempts schools, pet shops or other places properly confining rodents as pets or for research. A separate provision in the Sanitary Standards chapter, Section 292-42, independently bars any owner, tenant, lessee or person in charge of a building, house, store, apartment, room or place from permitting infestation by insects, rodents or other vermin to exist or be maintained.

Violating the feeding, harboring or debris rules under Section 282-4 carries a fine of $200 to $500 under Section 282-6, though a first offense of feeding, harboring or debris accumulation can be resolved by paying a $200 fine to the Violations Bureau at the East Orange Municipal Court within 14 days without a lawyer or trial. Violating the building infestation rule under Section 292-42 falls instead under Section 292-61, carrying the same $200 to $500 fine, with a first-offense Violations Bureau option, and Section 292-62 allows the court to add jail time in the County Jail, up to one day per dollar of the fine, for a second conviction of the same regulation within six months. Both chapters are enforced by the East Orange Department of Health and its Board of Health.