Muncie, IN Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Muncie City Code Section 155.26(H) requires guards and screens for protection against rodents and insects on every rental building, including corrosion-resistive, rodent-proof shields on every basement or cellar window that can be opened. Section 155.27 carries the requirement inside the structure: subsection (G) requires buildings used for human habitation to be kept free from insect and rodent infestation, and requires prompt extermination by methods that won't injure human health, with precautions taken afterward to prevent reinfestation. Subsection (H) puts the extermination duty on both the owner and the occupant, covering infestation inside a unit as well as in the shared or public parts of the building.

Subsection (I) narrows that further: whenever a rodent infestation is caused by the owner's failure to keep the dwelling in rodent-proof condition, the extermination responsibility falls on the owner alone, regardless of who lives there. These rules sit alongside the general cleanliness duties in Section 155.40, which requires occupants to dispose of rubbish and garbage properly, since food waste and clutter are common rodent harborage. The Muncie building commissioner enforces the chapter under Section 155.05, and a rental with an infestation severe enough to threaten occupant health can be declared unfit for human habitation and ordered vacated under Section 155.10 until the problem is corrected.