Can a Restaurant Get Shut Down for Mice in New York? What the Code Says, and What 1,588 Nassau County Inspection Records Show

Yes. Under the State Sanitary Code, a health official must order a restaurant closed when an imminent health hazard is not corrected during the inspection, and food that "is or may be adulterated, contaminated or otherwise unfit for human consumption" is on that list. Mice in the dining room are a citation. Mice in the food can be a closure.

Outside New York City, restaurants are regulated under Subpart 14-1 of the State Sanitary Code (10 NYCRR 14-1), enforced by the county health department. The pest rule is three sentences long. Section 14-1.160 says: "The premises are to be free of insects, rodents, harborage, and insect or rodent breeding conditions. Openings to the outside are to be protected against the entrance of insects and rodents. Pesticides are not to be used in place of or as a substitute for proper sanitation."

Read that last sentence again, because it is the part owners skip. The code does not ask whether you sprayed. It asks whether the building is sealed and clean. This is general information about the rules and not legal advice, and your county health department has the final word on any specific inspection.

Inspectors using the New York State form write up three pest items: 14A for insects or rodents present, 14B for a building that is not pest-proofed or has harborage, and 14C for pesticide applied without a certified applicator. All three appear by those exact names in the state's public inspection data.

Two of those three have nothing to do with seeing a pest. You can have a spotless kitchen with no mice in it and still be cited under 14B for a 1/2 inch gap under the back door, or under 14C for a can of roach spray on the shelf that an employee has been using.

About 1 in 7. In the New York State Health Department's public "Food Service Establishment: Last Inspection" dataset, 220 of the 1,588 Nassau County records, or 13.9 percent, list Item 14A, insects or rodents present. Across all 21,633 records in the same dataset, the rate is 7.5 percent, so Nassau's rate is nearly double.

Free to quote or republish these figures with a link to this page.

How to read these numbers We want to be exact about what this is. The dataset holds the most recent inspection on file for each establishment in it, and the newest Nassau inspection in our pull was dated September 25, 2026. It does not include New York City, which runs its own system, and it has no Suffolk County records. Nassau County says it permits over 5,700 food serving establishments, so 1,588 records is a large slice, not a full census. Item 14A covers insects and rodents together, so the data cannot tell you how many were mice and how many were flies or roaches. And a citation is a snapshot of one visit. Many of these were corrected.

One more number matters for the question in the headline. Of the 220 Nassau records citing insects or rodents, 192, or 87 percent, show zero critical violations on that inspection. That is the data confirming what the form says: pests being present is recorded as a non-critical item. It becomes something bigger only when it reaches the food or when it keeps coming back.

A New York restaurant is ordered closed for an imminent health hazard that is not corrected while the inspector is on the premises, or after notice and a hearing when an owner keeps failing to comply. Section 14-1.10 of the State Sanitary Code lists five violations that require an immediate closure order if not fixed on the spot.

The five, in the code's own terms:

1. Food from an unapproved or unknown source, or food that is or may be adulterated, contaminated, or otherwise unfit to eat.
2. Potentially hazardous food held longer than needed for preparation or service at a temperature above 45 degrees Fahrenheit or below 140 degrees Fahrenheit.
3. Potentially hazardous food that was exposed to contamination and is served again.
4. Toxic items that are improperly labeled, stored, or used.
5. People with a disease or infection that can be transmitted by food who are not restricted from contaminating food.

Number 1 is where rodents turn into a closure: droppings in the flour, gnawed bags on the dry storage shelf, roaches in the reach-in. Number 4 is where owners hurt themselves trying to fix it, which is the next section. The code separately requires closure for an unsafe water supply and for sewage that contaminates food, prep areas, or areas used by customers or staff.

There are slower routes too. Under section 14-1.197 a permit can be suspended, after notice and an opportunity to be heard, for failure to comply with the code or with an order from the health department. Under section 14-1.194 a permit can be revoked after notice and a hearing for serious, repeated, or persistent violations. A pest citation that shows up inspection after inspection is exactly that pattern.

And when a closure order does come, it is public. Section 14-1.198 requires the health department to post a notice or placard at each entrance and to publish notice of the order, with the reasons, in one or more newspapers in the county. The fine is rarely the expensive part.

No, not unless you hold a New York pesticide certification. The State Department of Environmental Conservation lets people apply general use pesticides on property they own or lease without certification, but that exemption excludes "any establishments selling or processing food." In a restaurant, a can of store-bought spray in an employee's hand is a commercial application.

That is what Item 14C is, and 61 Nassau County records in the state data carry it. The Sanitary Code adds its own limits in section 14-1.60: insecticide spraying is prohibited in food preparation and service areas while food is being processed, prepared, or served, and unprotected bait stations are forbidden in food storage, service, preparation, and utensil washing areas.

Here is the part that should stop any owner from reaching for the spray can. Mice being present is a non-critical item. Toxic items improperly used is number 4 on the immediate closure list. Spraying your own line to hide a roach problem before an inspection can turn a blue violation into a red one. Foggers and bombs do not solve it either.

Monthly is the standard for a restaurant, and in New York City it is close to a legal floor. Outside the city, the State Sanitary Code sets no visit schedule at all. It only requires the result: premises free of insects, rodents, and harborage. Monthly service on Long Island is industry custom, not a statute.

What the state does schedule is the inspector. The State Health Department's Environmental Health Manual sets inspection targets by risk: high-risk establishments an average of twice per year, medium-risk once a year, and low-risk once every two years. A full-menu restaurant should expect to be on the frequent end. A pest program that only gets attention after a bad inspection is always six months behind.

A service visit that counts is more than a spray. For a food account it means monitors checked and dated, locked bait stations outside, gel bait and growth regulator placed at the harborages instead of fogging, and a written log left on site showing what was found, what was applied, where, and at what rate. That log is what you hand the inspector. See what a visit covers on our commercial pest control page.

Yes. New York City restaurants fall under Article 81 of the City Health Code instead of the state subpart, and section 81.23 is stricter. It requires every permit holder to contract with a pest management professional licensed by the State Department of Environmental Conservation.

Section 81.23 also requires that the name, address, and DEC license number of the exterminator, the services provided, and the contract dates be kept on the premises. If you run locations on both sides of the county line, build the program to the city standard and you are covered in both.

This is the walk-through we do on a first visit to a Long Island food account. It follows the order the three violations are written in.

1. Check every exterior door with the lights off. If you can see daylight under it, a mouse can use it. Mice need just over 1/4 inch and rats just over 1/2 inch. Rubber and vinyl sweeps get chewed, so use a metal-backed sweep or brush.
2. Close the pipe and conduit openings. Behind the dish machine, under the three-bay sink, at the gas line, and at the walk-in compressor lines. Foam alone does not hold. See what mice and rats can chew through.
3. Get the cardboard out. Corrugated boxes are harborage for German cockroaches and nesting material for mice. Break down deliveries the day they arrive and store stock on racks off the floor.
4. Pull the equipment. Grease and food under the line, behind the fryer, and in the floor drain are what keep a roach population alive between treatments.
5. Walk the dumpster pad. Lids closed, pad clean, no gap at the enclosure gate, and nothing stored against the back wall of the building.
6. Take the spray cans off the shelf. Consumer pesticide on the premises invites a 14C conversation. Leave applications to the certified applicator.
7. Keep the paperwork where a manager can find it in one minute. Service agreement, applicator certification number, and the log from every visit.

Items 1, 2, and 5 are exclusion, which is the piece that makes the rest work. For a building with a rat or mouse history, start with our rodent exclusion service. For an active problem, see our cockroach exterminator and rat exterminator pages, and the German cockroach profile.

Both Long Island counties publish restaurant inspection results online for free. Nassau County runs a searchable Food Service Establishment Inspection database, and Suffolk County runs a Food Inspection Lookup. Your customers can read your last report in under a minute, and so can your competitors.

Nassau County's Department of Health says it permits over 5,700 food serving establishments and enforces the Public Health Law, the State Sanitary Code, and the county's Public Health Ordinance. Its database is at app.nassaucountyny.gov/doh/fsei/desktop.php. Suffolk County's Food Protection Program enforces Article 13 of the Suffolk County Sanitary Code and says it issues approximately 7,000 food service establishment permits, conducts more than 6,000 inspections, and investigates approximately 600 consumer complaints each year. Its lookup is at health.suffolkcountyny.gov/foodinspectionlookup. The statewide dataset we used for the numbers above is on the State Health Department's open data site, linked in the sources below.

We hold NYS DEC commercial applicator certification C1825832, which you can verify on our licensing page.