Oyster Bay, NY Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Section 135-51 of the Housing Standards chapter is titled "Protection from vermin" and imposes two distinct duties on owners. Subsection A requires that grounds, buildings and structures be kept free of insect, vermin and rodent harborage and infestation, and specifies that any extermination method used must conform to "generally accepted practice as used in the exterminating trade," which lets inspectors cite substandard do-it-yourself pest control as noncompliant even if some effort was made. Subsection B is a targeted, structural requirement: wherever the potential for rodent or vermin infestation exists, windows and other basement or cellar openings must be screened with wire mesh or other suitable material, closing off the entry points landlords and homeowners most often overlook.

The section is enforced the same way as the rest of Chapter 135: the Commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development or a designee serves a notice of violation on the owner, agent, or occupant found in violation, following the notice procedure at Section 135-53, which allows personal service or first-class and certified mail, with posting on the premises if the owner does not reside in Nassau County. Complaints commonly arise from accumulated garbage or overgrown vegetation feeding rodent activity, which the code separately restricts at Section 135-52 by capping vegetation height at eight inches and barring accumulated garbage or rubbish, giving code enforcement two overlapping tools for the same underlying rodent problem.