“Cities, like cats, will reveal themselves at night”
~Rupert Brooke British Poet, 1887-1915 (Letters From America)
It has started to become a much anticipated event to have one of the major exterminator or pest control companies (Orkin, Terminix, etc.) release a “Worst Bed Bug City Top 10″, Top 15, etc. list every year.
With the growing awareness of the public of just how horrible a bedbug infestation can be (not to mention financially, socially and emotionally disruptive!) exterminator company “Worst City Lists” often are looked forward to now as a new tradition and way to benchmark how a cherished or rival city has done over the course of the previous year versus the bugs (and they often are a source of pride or disappointment on innumerable morning radio and news programs and travel blogs just like home or rival city sports teams!).
“Did our city make it on the list this year”, “Who had the number one spot”?, etc. makes for excellent water cooler banter, but more importantly, it helps get people talking about a serious subject, bed bugs are not going to just go away without a concerted effort. It does really “take a village” to stamp out the bugs, (and if you pursue that same logic, all it really takes is one unwitting or careless person bringing them back into that village to start a whole new infestation cycle…).
In anticipation of a new list for 2012 from one of the large regional or national pest control companies, we have decided to highlight the Top 10 Cities from the massive 2011 “Top 50 Bed Bug Cities” list that the good folks at Orkin put out previously to refresh folks memories:
#10 Baltimore Maryland (Baile an Tí Mhóir in Irish Gaelic) stays in the tenth place spot year over year on the Orkin lists. (most of the cities place numbers on the list have not moved in position between Orkin’s 2010 and 2011 lists, we expect to see more jockeying of position on the their 2012 report).
#9 Showing way too much “Brotherly Love” to bed bugs, Philadelphia PA.
#8 The 1st, but no doubt last Ohio city on here given that State’s horrible bed bug situation, Dayton OH.
#7 The “Big Bed Bug” New York City NY.
#6 “The District”, Washington D.C.
#5 “Motor City” sputters in to the Top 5, Detroit Michigan
#4 “Mile High” but still in reach of bed bugs, not even the rarefied air at 5,280 feet could keep Denver CO out of the 4th place position.
#3 In a shake up versus the 2010 list, Columbus OH actually drops from the 2nd place to 3rd, hopefully this is a good sign for the “Discovery City”!
#2 Unlike Columbus OH, “The Windy City” blows in at second place, a move in the wrong direction, as Chicago MI switches positions and takes the Runner Up place.
#1 Not to be outdone by Michigan, Ohio doubles down and has the unique and unenviable honor of having the most cities in the top ten (three!) and the title of “Number 1 Worst City for bed bugs” with Cincinnati OH taking first place back-to-back on the Orkin list 2010, and 2011)!
Tune in this spring of 2012 as we expect more lists, more stories, and more rivalry as the bed bug epidemic continues to play out.