Waynesville, MO Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Section 210.075, amended by Ordinance No. 2064 on November 21, 2013, does not run a separate rodent-control chapter; instead it folds vermin conditions into its general public-nuisance list for any lot, tract or parcel of land in the city. One clause reaches any equipment, machinery or parts thereof that is in any state of disarray, dilapidation, decay, disrepair or disassembly when it creates an unsafe condition that would promote rodent harborage, language that covers junk piles, scrap and abandoned machinery sitting in a yard. A second clause separately targets any accumulation on any such property of dead grass, cut weeds, brush piles, noxious plants, downed trees and tree limbs, or uncultivated gardens that have the potential to harbor snakes, rodents or other vermin, so unmanaged yard waste is treated as a vermin risk independent of the section's separate ten-inch weed-height rule.

Commercial equipment gets a narrow exemption if it sits in an authorized zoning district and is either secured behind an opaque fence or arranged in an orderly way that does not promote rodent infestation. Enforcement follows the same Notice to Abate process as the rest of Section 210.075: the department responsible for code enforcement or a designee of the City Administrator must give the owner written notice and ten (10) days to remove the rodent-harboring material, a repeat violation within forty-five days can be abated without further notice, and unresolved cases become a special tax bill and lien on the property, with a fifty-dollar ($50.00) administrative fee added for the lien paperwork.