Rats in Columbus: The City's 311 Program and When to Call a Company

The city program is a good first call for burrows along your foundation or rats running the alley fence. It is the wrong call for a rat in your kitchen. For that, the city's own page says to contact the property owner or a licensed exterminator. If that is your situation, skip to the section on private companies or ask for an inspection now.

What the city's rat program does and does not do

The Vector Control Program at Columbus Public Health runs it. From the city's page:

• It treats outdoor areas only. Staff look for active signs such as burrows and gnaw marks.
• If they find activity and you want treatment, you sign a release of liability form so they can service your property.
• Your property then goes into a rotation for one recommended treatment each month.
• The yard has to be ready. That means no dog waste or bird seed, grass that is cut, and no trash or debris.
• It cannot treat commercial properties or apartment buildings.

Two things follow from that list. First, the program is slow by design. One treatment a month is the schedule, so plan on weeks, not days. Second, the yard conditions are not a formality. If the dog run is not picked up or the feeder is still spilling seed, expect the visit to end with a list of things to fix.

How to file a 311 rat request

1. Go to columbus.gov/311, choose Submit Request, and pick "Rat Complaint (Outside)."
2. Or call 311 at 614-645-3111, or email 311@columbus.gov.
3. Give the exact address and where you see activity: along the garage, under the deck, by the alley cans.
4. Before the visit, clean up the yard to the standard above.

The program covers addresses inside the city of Columbus. Dublin and Westerville are separate cities, and so are Hilliard and Grove City. The same goes for the other suburbs. If you live in one of them, check with your own city first, and plan on a private company for anything the city will not do.

What our 311 data shows

We pulled the City of Columbus 311 public data for the two full calendar years 2024 and 2025, addresses inside city limits only. Residents filed 1,878 "Rat Complaint (Outside)" requests in those two years, plus 507 code complaints about a rodent infestation. For scale, we counted 5,690 pest-related requests of all kinds over the same two years.

Rat requests to Columbus 311 by month (outdoor rats and rodent code complaints)

Rat requests run highest from June to August, at about 300 a month, and drop to about 120 a month from November to February. Summer is when people are out in the yard and see them. A rat you watched in August is still around in December, just less visible, so a quiet winter does not mean the problem left.

Where pest requests come from, by Columbus community, across both years:

Community	Pest-related 311 requests in 2024 and 2025
Greater Hilltop	738
North Linden	550
South Side	447
Mid East	403

Those totals cover every pest request type, not just rats. ZIP 43211 in Linden logs about 29 pest requests per 1,000 homes a year, the highest rate of the ZIPs we cover. Clintonville is a different story: of its 252 pest requests, 192 were outdoor rat complaints. That pattern is old. In the summer of 2013, Columbus Public Health surveyed 885 Clintonville properties and found signs of rats at about a third of them, according to WOSU. The city's flyers at the time asked residents to pick up pet waste, limit bird seed, and cover garbage and compost.

See the full breakdown by ZIP on our Columbus pest data page, or the neighborhood pages for Clintonville, Linden and the Hilltop.

Why rats pick your yard

Rats stay where food and cover are easy. The CDC's rodent prevention advice for outside the home:

• Keep garbage in thick plastic or metal cans with tight lids and no holes.
• Put compost bins at least 100 feet from the house.
• Hang bird feeders away from the house and use squirrel guards.
• Keep woodpiles at least 100 feet from the house and a foot off the ground.
• Trim brush and tall grass near the house.

On a city lot, 100 feet is often the whole yard, so the realistic version is a closed compost bin with no meat or food scraps, a feeder with a tray that catches seed, and cans with lids that latch. The city adds dog waste to its own list of conditions, and in an alley with several dogs that is often the main food source.

Construction matters too. In 2019 the city's vector control manager told WSYX that the city sees "an increase in rat activity when there is construction." When a lot is cleared or an old building comes down, the rats that lived there move to the next yards over. If a project starts on your block, tighten up the trash and the compost before the rats arrive, not after.

When you need a private company instead

Call a licensed pest control company, not 311, when:

• The rats are inside the house. The city does not treat indoors.
• You live in an apartment building. The city program cannot treat it, and in most rentals the fix is the landlord's job (see below).
• The property is a business.
• You live outside Columbus city limits.
• The city has treated and the rats keep coming, usually because they are getting under the house or garage through a gap no outdoor bait will fix.

A private company should start with an inspection and a written list of entry points, then seal them and trap what is inside. Our rodent control page covers what that work looks like, why snap traps beat glue traps, and the risks of rodent bait around pets and kids.

Renters

Ohio law puts the basic duty on the landlord. ORC 5321.04 requires a landlord to comply with the building and housing codes that materially affect health and safety, and to make repairs and do whatever is reasonably necessary to keep the premises fit and habitable. Tell your landlord in writing, keep a copy, and photograph what you see. If nothing happens, the city takes code complaints about rodent infestations through 311; our data counted 507 of them in two years. Our guide to Ohio renters and pests walks through the steps.

Working with your neighbors and the alley

Rats do not respect lot lines. One clean yard next to a yard with open trash and a spilling feeder will still see rats. If you share an alley, talk to the neighbors on both sides before you file, and ask them to clean up the same week. When several houses on the same alley fix the food and cover at once, the treatment has a real chance.

A few things that help in an alley:

• Keep can lids closed, and replace a can with a cracked lid or a chewed hole.
• Do not leave bulk trash or yard waste piled by the garage between pickups.
• Walk the garage slab and the fence line every week or two and look for new burrows. Note where they are when you file.

If you see burrows against your house foundation, treat that as a sign the rats are testing for a way in. Have the foundation and any gaps checked before the first freeze.

We only refer companies that hold an Ohio Department of Agriculture pesticide business license and send licensed commercial applicators. If rats are inside, or you are outside the city program, ask for an inspection and a written price.