Madera County, CA Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

28, Rodent Control, has governed unincorporated Madera County since a 1934 ordinance (Ord. No. 160) and remains in force today. 010 defines 'commissioner' as the county agricultural commissioner and defines 'rodents' to include ground squirrels, gophers, field mice, rats, and rabbits. 020, the operative nuisance declaration, states plainly that any premises in the county infected or infested with rodents is a public nuisance; unlike the county's weed-abatement scheme, there is no separate notice-and-protest sequence written into this chapter before that status attaches. 030 puts the abatement duty on the commissioner: whenever the nuisance exists anywhere in the county, the commissioner must cause it to be abated 'by eradicating, or by controlling, or by destroying the rodents,' and the code specifies the reasonable expense of doing so 'shall be a county charge' rather than billed directly to the property owner as weed-abatement costs are.

040 lets the commissioner inspect any premises whenever the commissioner deems it necessary to determine whether rodents are present. 050 gives the commissioner broad authority to prescribe eradication and control methods, hire the labor needed to carry them out, and set qualification rules for anyone employed for that work. 060 lets the commissioner manufacture and sell poison barley and other rodent-control materials at cost to anyone who satisfies the commissioner the materials will be used on county premises to control, destroy, or eradicate rodents. 26, which addresses fire-hazard vegetation rather than animal pests.