Cities Ranked by Number of Rat-Control Calls

Annual Orkin list ranks top 50 “rattiest” cities as pandemic leads to increased rodent problems

October 21, 2020

Rodents flourish in cities where food resources are available to them. When restaurants closed this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, issues with aggressive rats across all major cities increased. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a guidance for rodent control this spring.

Every year Orkin LLC releases its Top 50 Rattiest Cities List to determine which cities have the worst rodent problems. The rankings for this year are based on “the number of new rodent treatments performed from September 1, 2019 to August 31, 2020,” in residential and commercial environments, according to Orkin’s press release. Chicago placed at the top of the list for the sixth consecutive year and Baltimore ranked eighth marking the first time the city placed in Orkin’s top 10.

The Top 10 city rankings are:
1. Chicago
2. Los Angeles
3. New York
4. Washington, D.C.
5. San Francisco
6. Detroit
7. Philadelphia
8. Baltimore
9. Denver
10. Minneapolis

The other 40 cities can be seen in Orkin’s rankings.

According to Orkin, rodent activity will increase this winter as rats seek warm shelter. Orkin recommends that facility managers and home owners “pay extra attention to the attractants that entice rats and mice.” For more information about rodent prevention resources visit Orkin.com/rodents. Check out some tips for protecting your facility from rats and other winter pests.

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