Mobile, AL Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Article II of Chapter 43 (§§ 43-21 through 43-29) is Mobile's rat-control code, enforced by the county health officer against "business buildings" inside the city. Section 43-21 defines that term broadly: hotels, rooming houses, office buildings, stores, theaters, markets, restaurants, grain elevators, abattoirs, warehouses, workshops, factories, and the outhouses, sheds and barns on business premises all qualify. Evidence of infestation is defined as rat gnawing, rat excreta, rat spoor or rat nesting.

Section 43-25 sets the core duty: every business building in the city must be rat stopped, freed of rats and maintained in a ratfree condition. "Rat stoppage" under § 43-21 means closing every opening in exterior walls, foundations, basements, floors and roofs, and covering every exterior surface not already impervious to rat gnawing, wherever rats could reach it on the ground, by climbing or by burrowing.

The health officer inspects the interior and exterior of business buildings under § 43-22 to check compliance, and new construction must be ratproofed to the city building code, with plans approved by the director of inspection services, before the health officer will sign off (§ 43-23, § 43-24). When an inspection turns up a lack of rat stoppage, § 43-26 requires the health officer to serve the owner a written notice to rat stop the building; the owner gets at least 15 days, or longer if the health officer grants a written extension for good cause. Section 43-28 runs a separate three-day clock for active infestation: once evidence of rats is found, the occupant must immediately start poisoning, gassing, trapping or another equally effective method and keep it up until the building is rat-free. Section 43-27 makes it unlawful for any occupant, owner, contractor, utility company or plumber to strip out existing rat stoppage without restoring it, or to cut a new opening without sealing it against rats. If harborage is so extensive that repeated eradication efforts have failed, § 43-29 lets the health officer order the owner to pour concrete basement floors or replace wooden ground floors with concrete, with 60 days to comply.