What Maricopa County Vector Control Will and Will Not Do About Roof Rats
The county does handle roof rats, but not in the way most people expect. Here is what they actually do, what Tempe and other Valley cities do, and where it becomes your problem.
The short version
Maricopa County Vector Control will take your roof rat report and investigate it. What they will not do is come and remove the rats from your house.
The county states it plainly: the department does not provide bait stations or traps to the public. It is not an emergency response service either, and it directs residents who need something removed now to a licensed pest control company. Cities generally do the same. Tempe, which publishes one of the better roof rat pages in the Valley, sends residents to the county on 602-506-6616 and states that the city does not treat private residential property.
So the practical division is this: the county tracks and investigates, the city informs, and sealing and removing on your own property is yours.
What Vector Control does cover
Rodents are a small part of what the division does. The bulk of it is mosquitoes.
Mosquitoes
Routine traps run weekly across the county, with extra traps set in response to complaints. Trapped mosquitoes are tested for West Nile, St. Louis encephalitis, Chikungunya, Dengue and Zika. The county also works with property owners to eliminate breeding sites.
Free mosquito fish
Gambusia, the mosquito-eating fish, are available free by appointment. If you have a green pool, an ornamental pond or standing water you cannot drain, this is a genuinely useful service and it costs nothing.
Feral bees and flies
Both fall under the division’s complaint remit. Live bee removal on your own structure is separate work, and it is something we do; see live bee removal.
Roof rat complaints
Investigated to identify the responsible party. Useful when the source is a neighbouring property, an abandoned house or an unmaintained lot, because that is the situation an individual homeowner cannot fix alone.
What the cities say
Tempe’s guidance is the most detailed in the Valley and it is worth reading in full. The advice it gives homeowners is sound and it matches what we do on a job:
Seal the building. Stucco diamond mesh over holes and vents, caulk the cracks, screen sewer stacks, and pack AC line penetrations with steel wool or copper mesh.
Pick the fruit. All of it, ripe or not, and clear what has fallen. Citrus is the single biggest food source for roof rats in this city. Donate the surplus rather than leaving it on the tree.
Cut the water off. Leaking faucets and sprinkler heads, bird baths and pet bowls left out overnight.
Thin the cover. Rake under trees and shrubs, remove brush piles, and keep limbs off the roof line.
Tempe also gives specific trapping advice: snap traps baited with creamy peanut butter, set at least four feet up, and bait stations only, never loose bait, also four feet or higher.
Where this stops being a county problem
Everything above helps and none of it closes the hole. Once roof rats are in the attic, picking the citrus does not get them out, and the county is not coming to do it.
What actually ends it is trapping the animals that are inside, then sealing the points they used, then cleaning up what they left. That is the sequence, and skipping the middle step is why so many people are on their second or third company. We photograph every point we seal so you can see what was closed.
If you have already had someone out and the noise came back, the second opinion inspection is the place to start. Otherwise see roof rat removal or rodent exclusion.
What actually happens when you report a rodent problem to the county
Homeowners often assume a county report starts a treatment. It starts an investigation, and the two are not the same thing.
Maricopa County Environmental Services handles rodents as a nuisance and sanitation matter. The purpose is to identify the conditions producing the problem: standing water, accumulated refuse, an unmaintained pool, uncollected fruit, a property nobody is caring for. Where an inspector finds a violating condition on a property that is not yours, the county can require the owner to correct it. That is the leverage the county has, and on the right case it is real leverage no private company can offer you.
What the county will not do is come into your attic. It does not set traps on private residential property, it does not hand out bait stations, and it does not perform exclusion work. It is also not an emergency service, so a report made on a Friday evening about scratching over the bedroom is not going to produce anyone at the door that weekend.
The practical read: use the county process when the source sits outside your property line and someone else has to fix it. Do not wait on it once animals are inside your structure, because the two processes run on completely different clocks and the county one was never designed to end with your attic sealed.
The conditions next door that the county can reach and you cannot
Roof rats in Phoenix are a neighborhood-scale problem more than a house-scale one. A house that has been sealed correctly can still sit inside a block with heavy pressure, and that pressure usually has an address.
The recurring sources are unpicked citrus left on the tree and on the ground through winter, a green or abandoned pool, an irrigated yard with dense oleander or bougainvillea against a block wall, palm skirts that were never trimmed, and open bulk refuse. Alleys and utility easements connect all of it. Rats move along walls and wires rather than across open ground, so a single untended yard can feed a run that reaches four or five properties.
On your own property those are things a technician can walk through with you during an inspection. On a property you do not own, they are not, and that is exactly the gap the county process exists for. If the yard behind you has been empty for a year and the tree is dropping fruit into the alley, that process is the tool built for it.
What we can do in the meantime is make your structure a dead end. Pressure from the block does not put rodents in your attic on its own. An open entry point does.
County and city rodent questions, answered
Does Maricopa County get rid of roof rats for me?
No. Vector Control investigates roof rat complaints to work out who is responsible for the source, but the county states plainly that it does not provide bait stations or traps to the public. Removal on private property is the property owner’s job, either directly or through a licensed pest control company.
What does Maricopa County Vector Control actually handle?
Mosquitoes are the main programme, with weekly trapping and disease testing for West Nile, St. Louis encephalitis, Chikungunya, Dengue and Zika. They also deal with feral bees, flies and roof rat complaints, and they supply free mosquito-eating fish by appointment.
Who do I call about roof rats in Tempe?
Tempe directs residents to Maricopa County Vector Control on 602-506-6616 rather than to the city. The city does not treat private residential property for roof rats.
Is there any free rodent help from the county?
Not for rodents. The free service the county does offer is Gambusia, the mosquito-eating fish, available by appointment for standing water on your property. There is no equivalent for rats or mice.
Should I report roof rats even if the county will not treat them?
Yes. Reporting helps the county map where activity is concentrated and identify a source property when one neighbour’s citrus or standing water is feeding a whole block. It is worth doing alongside getting your own house sealed, not instead of it.
Sources
Maricopa County Vector Control, county services and scope.
Maricopa County Vector Control roof rat FAQ.
City of Tempe roof rat information.
Checked 3 September 2026. Programmes and phone numbers change, so confirm with the agency before relying on any of it.
Get the house looked at
If something is already in the attic, the county report is not going to move it. Tell us what you are hearing and a technician will walk the roof line and the attic, photograph what they find, and write you a quote. No charge for the look.