Jacksonville, NC Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Section 5-101(a) requires every door opening from a dwelling unit to the outdoors to carry a screen and a self-closing device, and every window or other opening used for ventilation to be screened as well, to keep out mosquitoes, flies and other insects. Section 5-101(b) extends the same screening requirement to basement and cellar windows and any other opening that could let rodents in. Section 5-101(c) assigns responsibility for extermination: the occupant of a single-unit dwelling is responsible for clearing insects, rodents or other pests from the unit and premises, and the occupant of a unit in a multi-unit dwelling is responsible only when that unit alone is infested.

Responsibility shifts to the owner whenever the infestation results from the owner's failure to keep the dwelling rodent-proof or reasonably insect-proof, and it also shifts to the owner whenever two or more units in the same building, or the shared or public areas of a multi-unit dwelling, are infested. Section 5-101(d) and (e) further require every dwelling to be supplied with approved rubbish containers and an approved garbage disposal facility, such as a sink grinder or an approved outside can, with the owner, operator or agent in control responsible for rubbish removal. The building inspector defined in Section 5-94 enforces the division.