Rodentiferous!

Orkin’s annual survey of the “rattiest” US cities was released a few days ago.  It makes interesting reading.

Orkin released its Top 50 Rattiest Cities list today, and for the fifth consecutive time, Chicago takes the top spot. New to the Top 10 cities this year are Minneapolis and Atlanta, holding the eighth and tenth spots, respectively.

Orkin ranked metro regions by the number of new rodent treatments performed from September 15, 2018 – September 15, 2019. This ranking includes both residential and commercial treatments.

1. Chicago
2. Los Angeles
3. New York
4. Washington, DC (Hagerstown)
5. San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose
6. Detroit
7. Cleveland-Akron (Canton) (+1)
8. Minneapolis-St. Paul (+3)
9. Philadelphia (-2)
10. Atlanta (+5)

There’s more at the link.  Click over there to see if your city is mentioned, and if so, at what rank.

This is a useful piece of information, and potentially important for your safety.  In the event of any major disruption caused by weather, or natural disaster (earthquake, volcano, whatever), or social disturbance, the rat is a major disease vector.  If you live in or near any of the cities listed, you should expect problems with that, and equip yourself with the necessary means to keep rats and mice under control in or near your residence.

Third World residents are used to doing that, of course, but in the First World we’ve largely forgotten the risks posed by rodents.  Think of the Black Death bubonic plague outbreak in the 14th century, just for a start.  Spread by rats and the fleas they carried, it killed up to half of the population in some parts of Europe.

Peter

15 comments

  1. Isn't the same as a list of the 10 biggest cities in America? Maybe in a somewhat different order.

    And aren't they all perpetually Democrat administrations?

  2. Hey, we (Minneapolis-St. Paul) made the Top Ten list! I'm so proud . . . :-/

    And Si, I think the answers to your questions are No and Yes. I may have to get back to you on that if I have enough time to dive into the data.

  3. Heh, friend of mine's daughter just quit her job because she was NOT moving to Cleveland… 🙂 Now safely back in Little Rock with a $5000/yr raise (she's a 'lab rat' running biological checks on products and medical items).

  4. And this doesn't count any number of other pest control companies.
    We use Terminix. And we're a good distance from the demonrat city of N'awlins.

    But maybe we should think about another cat or two just in case.

  5. Surprisingly, rodent control is a big issue in the Southwest. Wet rainy seasons bring an abundance of rats and mice, which bring Hanta and the plague out into civilization.

    Yay, rodents.

    As to NYC, there are groups of devoted dog-owners who own various ratting breeds, and who have banded together to hunt rats.

    Yay, rodents. Forcing liberals to kill animals using animals…

  6. Top Ten Rat-Infested Cities 2019

    1. Chicago
    2. Los Angeles
    3. New York
    4. Washington, DC (Hagerstown)
    5. San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose
    6. Detroit
    7. Cleveland-Akron (Canton) (+1)
    8. Minneapolis-St. Paul (+3)
    9. Philadelphia (-2)
    10. Atlanta (+5)

    Top Ten Metro Areas (MSAs) by Population 2018

    1 New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA MSA
    2 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA MSA
    3 Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI MSA
    4 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX MSA
    5 Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX MSA
    6 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV MSA
    7 Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL MSA
    8 Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD MSA
    9 Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA MSA
    10 Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH MSA

    So while there is some correlation between city size and rat infestation, it's not a 1:1 match. Indeed, Minneapolis-St. Paul, #8 for rats (Yay, again :-/ ) is # 16 in MSA size.

  7. Maybe we should revive rat-baiting, like in the movie The Great Train Robbery? That was quite a thing in Victorian times, and the fans of the sport said that they were "staunch supporters of the extermination of vermin."

  8. Both my hometown and my current area are on the list. Sigh. But I haven't had a mouse in my apartment here for a couple of years now.

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