Chicago is known as the “Second City,” but there’s at least one category in which the city tops its U.S. rivals: rat population.
Pest control company Orkin pegged Chicago as America’s “Rattiest City” in its annual rankings released Monday. It’s familiar territory for Chicago, which has held the title for eight years running.
The top five was rounded out by New York City in second, followed by Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.
New York and California were the only states with four cities listed in Orkin’s top 50.
California had San Diego (18th) and Sacramento (36th) joining L.A. and San Francisco, while New York had Albany (34th), Buffalo (39th) and Syracuse (42) joining NYC.
Multiple states had at least three cities that cracked the list, including Florida (Miami, Orlando and Tampa), Indiana (Fort Wayne, Indianapolis and South Bend), Michigan (Detroit, Flint and Grand Rapids) and Ohio (Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus).
Baltimore (7th) was Maryland’s lone entrant, and Virginia had Richmond (26th) and Norfolk (28th) listed as well.
Orkin compiled its rankings based on the number of new rodent treatments it was called to perform between September 2021 through August 2022.
The rankings include both residential and commercial treatments.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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