Hackensack, NJ Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Article IV of Chapter 84, Exterminators; Fumigation; Vermin Control, targets rat and vermin conditions directly. Section 84-7 prohibits any owner or occupant from maintaining premises in a vermin- or rat-infested condition, permitting infestation to develop, or creating or allowing any condition likely to promote or contribute to infestation. Section 84-8 requires that any building or structure erected, repaired, altered or extended after the chapter's effective date include provision for ratproofing, defined in § 84-1 as construction that treats openings in exterior walls, floors, basements, roofs and vents to keep rats from gnawing or climbing their way in.

Section 84-9 then protects that ratproofing once installed: no one may remove, damage or destroy any part of a building or appurtenance meant to keep rats out, except where construction work makes it temporarily necessary, in which case the ratproofing must be restored afterward. Section 84-10 targets rat food sources and harborage, barring anyone from throwing, placing or depositing putrid substances, night soil, filth, garbage, rubbish, refuse piles, old lumber or other rat harborage on any vacant lot, alley, lane, sidewalk, street, waterway or private or public ground without written Health Department approval. Section 84-12 rounds out the article by requiring any rodent- or insect-infested building to be treated with an effective fumigating compound before demolition begins.