Wyandotte County, KS Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Sections 17-61 through 17-63 place the duty to control rats directly on whoever controls the property, not just the record owner: the ordinance names 'every person owning, managing, operating, leasing or renting' premises within the city. Section 17-61 requires that person to free the premises of rats and keep them rat-free 'by poisoning, fumigating, trapping or any other means deemed necessary to the satisfaction of the public health department,' meaning the health department, not the property owner, has final say on whether the method used is adequate.

Section 17-62 separately bans 'rat harborage,' defined earlier in Section 17-59 as any condition that shelters rats or lets them multiply in, under or adjacent to a structure, so a property can violate the article even without documented rats present if it maintains conditions like accumulated debris or gaps that would shelter them. Section 17-63 extends the duty to 'anti-rat construction,' the treatment of exterior walls, floors, basements, roofs and foundations with rat-gnaw-resistant materials to block entry points, requiring every owner, manager, lessor, renter or occupant of an establishment to keep that construction in a condition the health department finds satisfactory.

Section 17-60 gives the public health department authority to inspect any premises in the city to check compliance with the whole rat control article, which the county has run since a 1953 ordinance.