You aren’t imagining it. There’s been a dramatic spike in the number of San Diego County restaurants shut down by health inspectors.
Twice as many eateries were closed last year compared to just four years ago, according to public records obtained by Times of San Diego.
The increase has led to high-profile closures of everything from fancy restaurants in luxury hotels to San Diego’s oldest bar, to its only lesbian bar, and even new venues like the Black Bear Diner in North County, which was closed for health code reasons less than a month after opening.
During annual health inspections, San Diego County inspectors temporarily shut down 524 restaurants in 2025. It was a slight increase, from 508 in 2024, but a much larger jump from 2023, when inspectors red-tagged 374 eateries.
The increase comes even though the county’s inspection number and process did not change during that period, according to county spokesperson Donna Durckel.
Inspectors close establishments when they find major health code violations like vermin infestations, lack of potable hot water, sewage issues and other sanitation concerns. Some restaurants were closed multiple times in a year, but those instances were only counted once per year in this analysis that looked at the county’s 30,000 annual inspections.
“Our role is to ensure facilities have a plan in place to maintain a vermin-free facility and take steps when they find an infestation in their facility,” Durckel said.
The rise of vermin
What is driving the increase in restaurant closures? Vermin.
From 2022 to 2025, vermin-related closures doubled from 211 closures to 442.
Of the 285 restaurant closures in 2022, three-quarters were shut down due to vermin infestations. Vermin were the most common reason for closure every year, accounting for 78% of 374 closures in 2023. In 2024, the number of vermin-related closures jumped to 413, making up 81% of that year’s 508 closures. Last year saw the highest number of restaurant closures from infestations, with officials closing 442 food establishments out of 524, 84% of the total closures.
In those cases, health inspectors issued a “major” health code violation after finding active infestations of rodents, insects, birds, or other animals that pose an imminent threat to human health. Evidence of an infestation can include seeing live or dead rodents, live cockroaches, or even signs of their presence, like gnaw marks or droppings.
If an infestation is found, business owners must act before reopening. In some cases, this means sealing entry points where rodents or pests are entering, performing deep cleaning, or hiring a pest control service.
‘We just don’t know’ | The holes in the data
The data provided to Times of San Diego does not indicate what type of infestation, whether rodent, insect, bird, or other animal, is present when closing a restaurant.
While the data does not specify the exact reason for the closure, one thing is certain: an increasing number of restaurants and eating establishments are infested with vermin. The two most likely culprits are cockroaches and rats, with the latter being the most likely unwanted kitchen guest.
“If there’s more restaurants being closed because of rats, then it’s not that big of a leap to assume that there may be more rats,” said Niamh Quinn, the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) Area Vertebrate Pest Advisor who is based at a research center in Irvine.
The problem, says Quinn, is that many counties, San Diego being one of them, do not track rodent populations.
“We’re very bad at measuring how many rats are in our urban areas. So, when we do have outbreaks, like potentially what we have now – potentially – we just don’t know, because we’ve nothing to compare it to,” said Quinn.
One international scientific study, published in 2025 in the journal Science Advances, found rat populations grew in many urban areas around the world. The researchers used health inspection data, public complaints and other indicators to show rat populations rose in 11 cities over seven years. While San Francisco and Oakland were part of the study, San Diego was not because it did not differentiate between rats and other vermin.
Without adequate tracking, experts can only go on reports of infestations. So, exactly what is driving the increase in rodents and insects inside San Diego County kitchens?
“While we don’t have proof that instances of rats are going up and down, we do know that we have these changes in chemistries, and changes of climate,” said Quinn.
The changes in “chemistries” that Quinn points out are a 2024 ban on an anticoagulant rodenticide, or blood thinner used on rats, which was outlawed due to its impact on predators eating rats and other environmental concerns.
Rodenticide ban
While changing climate patterns is a major contributing factor, recent laws aimed at outlawing the anticoagulant poison that harms the environment might have a more immediate impact.
On Jan. 1, 2024, a new rodenticide ban went into effect in California, collapsing the use of a popular rat poison.
That bill, AB 1322, banned a second-generation anticoagulant rodenticide over wildlife and environmental concerns.
Data from Southern California’s agriculture commissioners show that the chemical banned in 2024 was already being used less in 2023 in anticipation of the ban.
That year did see a growth in public health closures, but nothing like what happened in 2024 when the ban went into effect.
There are other rat poisons available, but switching to a fast-acting alternative forced businesses to rework how they manage rat populations. That is an already tough job because rats adapt to defeat such measures, according to Quinn.
“We know for sure that the rats are getting smarter now,” Quinn said. “Rats are really, really hard to manage. And it’s hard when your toolbox gets restricted.”
But experts say the rise of rats, roaches and other vermin is likely a combination of things, with one major underlying fact: climate change.
“We do know that climate change is causing increasing numbers of rats in cities across the world,” said Quinn.
According to the 2025 study in Science Advances, cold constrains small mammal populations, so more warm days meant more rats. Climate warming also expanded the geographic footprint of certain insect pests, other research found.
Even if big-picture trends make managing vermin more challenging, Eric Middleton, the UCCE integrated pest management (IPM) advisor, still thinks closures are more impacted by the availability of food and sanitation practices than anything else.
“There are a lot of different factors that have to be considered, and probably the factors that influence more than just, say, outdoor weather, are the individual conditions in restaurants or other places,” Middleton said.
2026 is on track to be another year with high vermin-related closures. By April 9, 150 eateries were already forced to temporarily shutter after health inspections. Of those closures, 121 were vermin-related.
“Why are we getting rats in our restaurants? Why are there so many rats in our schools? Why are there rats in our airports?” Quinn said. “It just shouldn’t be happening.”
