Chicago food inspections: violation 38 near you

What violation 38 covers

In the city's food inspection records, violation 38 is titled “Insects, rodents, & animals not present”. The inspector's comment says what they found. It is usually one of three things.

Pests

Live or dead insects or rodents, droppings or nests.

Door gaps

Gaps, holes and other openings where pests can get in.

Log book

No pest-control log book on site, or one that is out of date.

Less often: a fly trap hung over food, or an animal inside.

Pests, door gaps and log books in the records

All of Chicago, Oct 5 – Nov 1, 2026: violation 38 at 148 places.

A place can be in both. Most of the rest were door gaps and other openings. So a violation 38 write-up alone does not mean pests. We label each one from the inspector's words.

Who was written up

44 of the 148 places are not restaurants:

Bars are out of all 148 places. Each line in your list names the facility type from the record.

Pass or Fail

Violation 38 is written on passing inspections too.

The rest passed, or passed with conditions. Each line in your list gives the result the inspector wrote, and says when a later inspection did not repeat violation 38.

How we count. A place counts once, however many inspections or licenses it has: two licenses with the same name at one address are one place, and an inspection posted twice counts once (2 rows). We leave out food trucks and carts (2), because the city inspects them at a commissary, not where they sell; places the city recorded as Out of Business after the inspection (1); and rows that were not an inspection, such as No Entry (1 rows). So a raw count of the city's file for the same dates comes out higher: count the licenses yourself or see every row.

Source: City of Chicago, all ZIP codes, counted by the pestcite engine from city records, Oct 5 – Nov 1, 2026; data as of Nov 8, 2026. Records: Food Inspections, Business Licenses. How we count

The counts stop a week or more before the data date, because write-ups reach the city's data late.

New licenses

In the same 4 weeks, the city issued 104 new food and child-care licenses. A new license is not always a new business. Many follow an earlier license at the same address, for example after a change of owner. Each line says when the records point to a possible change of owner.

How a pest firm uses it on Monday

1. 7:00 Monday, Chicago time. Your list arrives by email: the write-ups and new licenses near your shop from the newest complete week (the week before last), ranked.
2. Start at the top. Pests noted weigh most, then log books, then door gaps. A line moves up for a Fail, for a grocery, daycare, school, hospital or long-term care facility, when the inspector's note names pest control or an exterminator, and for violation 38 in the year before. A later inspection without violation 38 moves it down only a little, so such a place can still lead the list. National and regional chains and district-run Chicago Public Schools go to the bottom.
3. Read the line. It shows the inspector's words, including any that name pest control or an exterminator, and marks a license's repeat violation 38 Fails this year. Open the record to check. If a line looks wrong, report it from the line.
4. Pick who to call or visit. Export the list as a CSV if you work from a spreadsheet or CRM.

Calling a place on your list

• Check the date, the result and any later inspection first. A place that passed again since needs a different opener.
• Lead with the fix the inspector asked for: a current log book, door sweeps, service visits. Never open with “you failed” or “I saw you got cited”.
• For the log book write-up above: “Your inspection on Sep 29 asked for a current pest-control log book and inspection reports. We can set that up and keep it current.”
• Chicago records give the business, its address and the license holder. They carry no phone number, so look the place up or stop by.

A record is not a request for service. It shows what an inspector wrote on a date. We contact no one for you. Using public inspection records this way: is it legal?

Doing it yourself

The same records are free on the City of Chicago data portal: Food Inspections (4ijn-s7e5). To find violation 38 there:

• Search the violations column for “38. INSECTS, RODENTS, & ANIMALS NOT PRESENT”.
• Use inspections from July 1, 2018 on. Before that date, item 38 was about ventilation and plumbing.
• Read every comment. Droppings and a door gap sit under the same number.
• Expect late rows. A write-up can post days or weeks after the inspection.

pestcite does this for your ZIP every week, labels each write-up, and adds the new licenses.