Waukesha, WI Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

City of Waukesha Municipal Code Section 13.01 defines a Rat Harborage as any place rats can shelter, store or consume food, or nest, and requires the Department of Community Development to investigate every reported harborage and inspect premises for others. Under subsection (2), once the Department issues a written order identifying a harborage, the property owner must eliminate it exactly as the order specifies; firewood, lumber and similar stored materials must be piled neatly and raised at least a foot off the ground so rats cannot nest underneath. Subsection (3) separately bars anyone from storing food sources, birdseed, or animal feed where rats can reach it, requiring Rat-Proof Containers, defined as covered containers of concrete, metal or other rat-impervious material with a tight-fitting lid.

Subsection (5) requires every building owner to keep the structure reasonably Rat-Proof, replace broken basement windows, and cover basement window openings with quarter-inch galvanized Hardware Cloth. Owners of sheds, barns, coops and outbuildings must eliminate harborages under or within those structures by rat-proofing, raising the building off the ground, or another suitable method.

Once evidence of rats, holes, burrows, or droppings turns up on a property, subsection (4) gives the owner only 10 days from the Department's notice to exterminate or start good-faith extermination efforts, and to fill in the holes and burrows. Section 13.01 was last amended by Ord. 2024-7 on February 20, 2024.