Rats or mice? Two animals, two different complaints.
In Columbus code enforcement records, the word a complaint uses predicts almost everything else about it. "Rat" means the yard, the alley, the neighbor, the car, and July. "Mice" means the walls, the kitchen, the landlord, and the heating season. Knowing which one you have tells you what to report, to whom, and what fix to ask for.
How to tell them apart
| Sign | Rat | Mouse |
|---|---|---|
| Size | Body the size of a fist or larger, thick tail | Body the size of a thumb, thin tail |
| Droppings | Large, blunt, the size of a raisin | Small, pointed, the size of a grain of rice |
| Where you see them | Outside: yard, alley, under the porch or shed, in the engine bay | Inside: kitchen cabinets, behind the stove, in the walls at night |
| Signs outside | Burrows in the ground, runways along fences and walls | Rarely any |
| Signs inside | Gnawed doors, large holes, noise in the basement | Droppings in drawers, shredded paper, scratching in walls and ceilings |
| Entry | A gap the size of a quarter | A gap the size of a pencil |
Complainants are not zoologists, and the city’s records show that. Some "rats" are mice, and the other way round. But the two groups differ so consistently on where the animal is, what building it is in, and what month it is that the word is tracking something real.
What the records show
| Says "rat" | Says "mice" | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the animal is | Outside. The yard, the neighbor’s, tall grass, a car, a pile, the alley | Inside. The walls, the kitchen, holes, the bathroom, a bed |
| What building | Houses, doubles, and small rental rows with yards and alleys | Apartments. The mouse share rises with building size |
| Who gets blamed | A neighbor, the city, the alley | A landlord or management company, three times as often |
| When | Peaks in July, quiet in February | Level all year. Largest share of all complaints from October through January |
| Where in the city | The prewar alley grid: South Hilltop, the Near East Side, Milo-Grogan, Linden, the South Side | The apartment belt: Northland, Wake Robin, the Far East Side, the Southwest |
| What else is mentioned | Raccoons, possums, snakes, skunks | Roaches, mold, a leak, the unit number |
| How it is filed | Usually as a tall grass or trash complaint | Usually as an infestation inside an occupied unit |
From Jan 2025 through August 2026, 1,638 Columbus complaints said "rat" and 792 said "mice". The full analysis, with every neighborhood, is in the Columbus Rat Report.
Why the word changes your complaint
Rats outside are a harborage complaint. The city cites the tall grass, the junk pile, and the open trash that feed them, not the animal. Describe the condition and where it is. How to word it.
Mice inside are an infestation complaint. In a rental, the landlord has to treat it, and traps are not treatment. Say "inside", give the unit, name the holes, and say when you told the landlord. Who has to fix it.
Rats inside are the worst case in the records, the houses where the rats in the yard have become the rats in the kitchen. Report both: the infestation inside and the condition outside that feeds it.
The wrong word can send the wrong inspector. A mouse complaint that does not say "inside" can be filed as a yard complaint. A rat complaint that only says "rats" gives an inspector nothing to cite.
Check the building or the block
Rats are a block problem: 82% of rodent addresses in the records were reported once, and the next report is next door. Mice are a building problem: they repeat at complexes. Either way, the address tells you more than the neighborhood.
Check any Columbus address
What has been reported there, at the same building, and on the block around it. Free, no account.
Free · no account · opens the live map's Block Report for the address
Common questions
How can I tell if I have rats or mice?
Size and droppings. A rat’s body is the size of a fist or larger with a thick tail and raisin-sized droppings. A mouse’s body is the size of a thumb with a thin tail and rice-sized droppings. Rats leave burrows outside and gnaw large holes. Mice leave droppings in drawers and scratch inside walls.
Are rats or mice more common in Columbus?
Rats, by complaint count. In the city’s records from January 2025 on, about twice as many complaints say "rat" as say "mice". They are different problems: rat complaints are about yards and alleys in older neighborhoods, mouse complaints are about the inside of apartments.
Do mice mean the building is dirty?
No. Mice need a gap the width of a pencil and a warm wall. In Columbus records, mouse complaints rise with building size and cluster in the apartment belt, and the complaint is usually about unsealed openings and a landlord who provided traps instead of repairs.
When do mice come inside in Ohio?
When it turns cold. In Columbus complaint records, mouse complaints take their largest share of all complaints from October through January. Rat complaints peak in July, when people are outside and see them.
Keep going
Know Your Block is a free, independent public-information project operated by Canary Civic LLC. It maps official City of Columbus code-enforcement complaints so renters and homebuyers can research a property before they move in. It is not affiliated with the City of Columbus and nothing on this page is legal advice.
Complaint counts describe reports filed, not verified conditions. A filed complaint is a report, not a proven violation, and records may be unfounded, resolved, or out of date.