Port St. Lucie, FL Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Responsibility for extermination shifts with occupancy type. An owner must exterminate any structure before renting or leasing it (§ 41.14(b)). The occupant of a one-family dwelling or a single-tenant nonresidential structure is responsible for extermination on that structure's premises (§ 41.14(c)). In a building with two or more dwelling units, a multiple-occupancy building, a rooming house or a nonresidential structure, the owner covers the shared or public areas, but if an occupant's own failure to prevent infestation in their space causes the problem, that occupant is responsible for their unit (§ 41.14(d)).

Occupants otherwise carry an ongoing duty to keep their space rodent- and pest-free, except where the infestation stems from a defect in the structure itself, in which case responsibility reverts to the owner (§ 41.14(e)). Section 41.08(c) parallels this outdoors: exterior property must be kept free from rodent harborage and infestation, with prompt extermination and follow-up precautions against reinfestation when rodents turn up. Section 41.06 defines "extermination" as eliminating harborage places, removing or securing food sources, and using poison spraying, fumigation, trapping or other approved methods, and defines "vermin" as rats, mice or other rodents designated by the code official.

Rubbish and garbage storage rules in § 41.13, requiring approved covered containers and doors removed from discarded refrigerators, work alongside these sections to cut off rodent food and harborage sources.