Vanderburgh County, IN Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Section 8.16.020(A)(2) of the Vanderburgh County Code separately bars letting rank vegetation grow when it "might provide food or harborage for insects, rodents, or pests," pose a fire safety hazard, or pose a nuisance, a standard that applies regardless of the nine-inch height threshold that governs plain weeds under (A)(1). The companion trash provision, 8.16.020(B)(1), uses the identical rodent-harborage language to reach deposited or accumulated trash, debris, garbage, junk, and rubbish. Under 8.16.020(D), the county treats a violation of either clause as creating an "unsafe premises" that is a hazard to public health under IC 36-7-9-4, which grounds the county's authority to inspect and abate.

The Vanderburgh County Health Department's Executive Director, or that office's designee, is named among the officials empowered to enforce the county's nuisance and public-health chapters, alongside the Department of Metropolitan Development's code enforcement staff. Abatement follows the same notice-and-cure track as the rest of Chapter 8.16: a 10-day notice to correct or request a hearing under 8.16.050, an administrative-search-warrant requirement for occupied property under 8.16.040 unless the condition is visible from a public way, and cost recovery through a tax-duplicate lien under 8.16.080 if the county has to clear the harborage itself.

Because rodent harborage is folded into the general nuisance chapter rather than a standalone vector-control ordinance, the same nine-inch companion rule for weeds (8.16.020(A)(1)) and the trash rule (8.16.020(B)) are the operative sections a property owner would be cited under.