Chicago is officially on a seven-year streak as the No. 1 “Rattiest” City” in America.
Orkin just released its annual findings, showing that the Top 5 cities on the 50-city list “didn’t budge” from last year’s rankings. That means Chicago is still the rattiest city for the seventh consecutive year, according to the pest control company. “Orkin ranked metro regions by the number of new rodent treatments performed from September 15, 2020 to September 15, 2021,” the report explains, later noting that rodent visibility increased during “an unprecedented last year.”
“As people resume normal activities, food availability will rise,” Ben Hottel, an Orkin entomologist, said in the report. “Rodents are experts at sniffing out food and shelter, and they’re resilient in their ways to obtain both. After a year of depleted resources, residential properties offer the ideal habitat for rodents, and once they’ve settled in, they’re capable of reproducing rapidly and in large quantities.”
These are the Top 10 Rattiest Cities:
- Chicago
- Los Angeles
- New York
- Washington, D.C.
- San Francisco
- Baltimore
- Philadelphia
- Detroit
- Denver
- Cleveland
Orkin notes steps to help prevent rat infestations, including storing food away, clearing clutter, look for possibly entry points and others.
See the full report from Orkin here.