Somerville, MA Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Section 11-38 of the Code of Ordinances requires every owner and occupant to keep 'all premises and places' free from rats, mice and other rodents, and makes it unlawful to fail to take the reasonable preventive and remedial measures the superintendent of inspectional services or board of health prescribes. Owners and occupants must implement rodent-proofing and extermination measures to keep rodents away from food and water sources, and must prevent the buildup of materials that can shelter rodents, including garbage, litter, excrement, lumber, tree limbs, firewood, junked vehicle parts, construction debris, scrap metal and overgrown vegetation.

If an infestation is confirmed by burrows, droppings, gnaw marks or tracks, the owner must eradicate it at their own expense, including hiring a Massachusetts-licensed exterminator if the superintendent requires it. Before demolition, construction or land-clearing work, and before subsurface work in the public right-of-way, the superintendent of inspectional services or superintendent of public works can require a rodent-extermination program to begin at least seven days ahead of the project and run until substantial completion. Inspectors, the board of health, and the superintendent of inspectional services have a right of entry to investigate suspected violations, and a written correction order gives the owner up to 21 days to abate.

If the board of health finds a geographic area is infested, it can hold a public hearing on 14 days' notice to landowners within the area and 300 feet around it, then order every landowner in that area to bait their property or take other remedial steps.