Baltimore Businesses Reopen Despite Pest Infestations

When Baltimore health inspectors visited a Royal Farms in the Patterson Park neighborhood in December, they found multiple sanitation concerns, including rodent droppings beneath shelves, gnats around the coffee station and several mice running through the store, according to public inspection reports.

The inspector ordered the store to close immediately. However, a follow-up inspection conducted the next day by the Baltimore City Health Department reported that all violations had been corrected and the business was cleared to reopen.

An analysis by The Baltimore Sun found that restaurants and convenience stores shut down over infestations involving rats, mice, cockroaches and gnats are reopening more than twice as fast as they did five years ago. The findings also show that repeat infestations continue to occur at some locations, raising concerns about whether the quick reopenings are fully addressing the root causes of the problems.