Shoreline, WA Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Shoreline handles rodent and insect control through its property maintenance code rather than a stand-alone pest ordinance. SMC § 15.05.070 amends IPMC Section 302.5 to require every structure and exterior property in the city to be kept free from rodent harborage and infestation, measured against the King County Board of Health Code Chapter 8.06, and requires prompt extermination by an approved process wherever rodents turn up, followed by precautions to eliminate the harborage and stop reinfestation. Section 309.1 imposes the identical standard for insects, so a cockroach, ant or bedbug infestation is treated exactly the same way as a rat or mouse problem: prompt extermination by an approved process, then follow-up precautions against reinfestation, again measured against King County Board of Health Code Chapter 8.06 rather than a separate city health code.

Because both sections point to the King County code standard, the practical trigger for a violation is King County's own definitions of harborage and infestation, which Shoreline's code adopts by cross-reference rather than restating. The property owner, not just a tenant, carries the duty to keep the structure and its exterior grounds free of both conditions, and the requirement covers exterior property such as yards, sheds and accumulated debris as well as the structure itself, since accumulated junk and food waste are common rodent harborage sources the code targets indirectly through this cleanliness standard.