Wilmington, NC Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Section 16-271 sets sanitation duties for anyone occupying or letting a Wilmington dwelling. Subsection (3) requires every occupant to dispose of "all his garbage and any other organic waste which might provide for rodents and all rubbish in a clean and sanitary manner," using the garbage disposal facilities or storage containers required by Chapter 10. Subsection (4) then assigns the extermination duty directly: "Every occupant of a single dwelling and every owner of a building containing two (2) or more dwelling units shall be responsible for the extermination of any insects, rodents or other pests within the building or premises." In a multi-unit building, that duty falls on the owner rather than individual tenants, tracking the broader rule in § 16-271(1) that owners of buildings with two or more units must maintain the shared and public areas in a clean and sanitary condition.

The related Abandoned Structures article defines the terms at stake with more precision: "Extermination" means "the control and elimination of insects, rodents or other pests by eliminating their harborage places; by removing or making inaccessible materials that may serve as their food, by poisoning, spraying, fumigating, trapping or by other recognized and legal pest elimination methods approved by the housing inspector," while "Infestation" covers "the presence, within or around a dwelling, of any insects, rodents or other pests in such numbers as to constitute a menace to the health, safety or welfare of the occupants or to the public." Windows, doors and cellar hatchways must independently be kept "substantially weathertight, watertight and rodent proof" under § 16-269(7), and interior floors, walls and ceilings must be "substantially rodent proof" under § 16-269(14).