The Windy City remains the most rodent-infested American city for yet another year, according to Orkin. The pest control company dubbed Chicago as such in its yearly "Top 50 Rattiest Cities" rankings released on Monday. The populous Illinois city has also held that place for the past eight years. To determine the order of the ranking, Orkin looked at new pest control treatments for rodents in a 12-month time frame from September 2022 through August 2023.
The two others cities that Orkin considered among the five most rat-infested were Washington, D.C., and San Francisco. The three metro areas behind those did not see their spots on the list change year over year. In the No. 6 spot was Philadelphia while Baltimore came in seventh and Denver eighth, according to Orkin. The pest control company ranked Detroit as the ninth most rat-infested city, marking a one-spot increase for the Michigan city. The Cleveland-Akron area, meanwhile, went to No. 10.
Orkin has belonged to Atlanta-based Rollins Inc. since 1964. In addition to Orkin, Rollins has a slew of other brands such as Western Pest Services and Northwest Exterminating, according to its website. Rollins had a value of $16.33 billion on a market cap basis as of early Tuesday afternoon.