Shreveport, LA Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Chapter 58's rodent control article applies to 'business buildings,' defined broadly in section 58-176 to cover hotels, roominghouses, theaters, office buildings, stores, markets, restaurants, grain elevators, abattoirs, warehouses, workshops and factories, plus the sheds, docks, wharves and other structures used with them. Section 58-177 requires any new business building, curb market or farmers' market to be built ratproof from the start. The health officer or a representative can make unannounced inspections of any business building under section 58-178 to check for rat infestation, and under section 58-179 can order the owner, occupant or agent, in writing, to rat-stop the building or take other rat-control measures the health officer deems necessary, giving no less than 15 days to finish the work; missing that deadline is itself an offense under the article.

Section 58-180 lets the health officer inspect during and after any rat-stopping construction, and section 58-181 authorizes closing a building or premises entirely if it's so heavily rat-infested that it menaces public health, until the rats are eradicated. Section 58-182 separately bans maintaining any rat harborage: no garbage, rubbish, waste or manure may be left to accumulate where it could feed or shelter rats, and no dead animals, butchers' offal, seafood or waste food may be dumped on land or in any waterway in the city.

Section 58-183 spells out the ratproofing specs the health officer enforces: foundation ventilator openings covered with metal grills no coarser than a half-inch mesh, door edges sheathed in 24-gauge sheet metal, and window and pipe openings guarded with 19-gauge wire cloth, among other detailed construction standards.