Onslow County, NC Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Sec. 5-104(g) of the Minimum Housing Ordinance splits responsibility for insects and rodents between owner and occupant based on where the infestation originates and how far it spreads. An occupant of a single dwelling unit is responsible for exterminating any insects, rodents, or other pests inside that unit, and in a multi-family building the occupant stays responsible whenever their unit is the only one infested. The owner takes over the extermination duty in three situations: when two or more units in a multi-family dwelling are infested, when the infestation is in shared parts of a multi-family building, or whenever the infestation traces back to the owner's failure to keep the dwelling reasonably rodent- and insect-proof.

Sec. 5-102(a)(2) reinforces this by making owners responsible for extermination whenever the place of habitation is not reasonably impervious to pests, and Sec. 5-104(h) separately requires every dwelling unit to have an adequate, lidded container for storing garbage and trash on a temporary basis, tying back to the county's Solid Waste Management Ordinance. Enforcement runs through the same public officer, the Director of the Onslow County Planning and Development Department, who can investigate a pest complaint under Sec. 5-121 and, if the infestation renders the unit unfit, issue a repair order under Sec.

5-123. Because this rule lives in the housing code, it governs occupied and rented dwellings across the unincorporated county; it does not reach Camp Lejeune, which handles pest control on base through its own federal housing program.