Rodent Control in Cherry Hill, New Jersey

The township's master plan says its residential developments grew rapidly between 1950 and 1970. Census estimates put 46.5% of Cherry Hill's housing units in the 1960 to 1979 range, and only about 4.0% in 1939 or earlier.

So the useful question is less about very old walls and more about what a house of that age has picked up over the years. Ask the pro to check where pipes and cables pass through the walls, the seals around doors and any basement windows, and any seam where a later addition meets the original house.

Township code Section 15-17.18 calls for a periodic exterminating service, every month, in all multiple family dwellings. The state rule, N.J.A.C. 5:10-10.2, sets preventive pest work at least once a year, more often where infestation recurs, and defines the buildings it covers differently from Section 15-6, so check your building against each rule.

Where the superintendent does not live in the building, Section 15-19.2 has the owner give tenants and the Property Maintenance Inspector that person's name, address and phone number, and name an alternate. The code's word is exterminating service, so ask what pests a building's service covers.

If your home is on the township's automated cart pickup, Chapter 19 of the township code names vermin in its cart rules. Homes where automated pickup is not suitable use their own 15-to-50-gallon cans instead.

• Lid shut at the curb: Trash goes in the green township cart, 64 or 96 gallons. At the curb its lid should be closed shut, and the resident must take all possible precautions to keep vermin, insects and other animals out.
• Stored out of sight: Section 19-2.12(b) requires a cart kept outside to sit behind the front face of the house, concealed so it cannot be seen from the public street or the neighboring properties.
• Placed to discourage vermin: Under Section 19-2.12(e), carts and cans should be stored and set out in a way that discourages vermin and animals, and under 19-2.12(d) residents clean up waste animals scatter because a cover was defective or inadequate.
• Timing at the curb: Pickup is once a week. Carts may not go out before 5:30 p.m. the evening before collection, and empty ones may not sit at the curb more than 12 hours after the regular collection time.
• Firewood and outdoor garbage: Section 15-16.5 says outdoor wood piles, firewood included, should be in the rear or side yard at ground level, and garbage kept outdoors in containers should be in the rear or side yard, above ground level.

Section 19-2.12(a) also says what goes in the cart must not stop the lid from closing, and asks residents to report a damaged cart.

Article V of Chapter 15 of the township code splits extermination between owner and occupant by the type of building, and by who caused the problem.

Read the code sections themselves before relying on this plain-language summary.