Baltimore Tops Bed Bug-Infested Cities List

BALTIMORE, MD — Baltimore has retained its position at the top of a not-so-pleasant list: Orkin's annual ranking of the top 50 bed bug cities in the United States.

For the second year in a row, Baltimore claimed the No. 1 spot on the list, which Orkin created based on the number of bed bug treatments ordered in each metropolitan area from Dec. 1, 2016, through Nov. 30, 2017.

Bed bugs are insects that hitch-hike onto people from mattresses, luggage or other items. All they need for survival is blood. Signs of bed bugs are bites, blood-stained bedding or flat reddish-brown insect bodies.

Here are the top 25 cities for bed bug treatments and the change in their rankings from last year, according to Orkin:

1. Baltimore, Maryland
2. Washington, D.C.
3. Chicago, Illinois
4. Los Angeles, California (+2)
5. Columbus, Ohio
6. Cincinnati, Ohio (+2)
7. Detroit, Michigan
8. New York, New York (-4)
9. San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, Texas
10. Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas (+5)
11. Indianapolis, Indiana
12. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
13. Atlanta, Georgia (+3)
14. Cleveland-Akron-Canton, Ohio (-1)
15. Raleigh-Durham, N.C. (-3)
16. Richmond-Petersburg, Virginia (-5)
17. Houston, Texas
18. Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News, Virginia (+2)
19. Charlotte, North Carolina (-3)
20. Buffalo, NY (-2)
21. Knoxville, Tennessee
22. Nashville, Tennessee (+1)
23. Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo-Battle Creek, Michigan (+4)
24. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
25. Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina-Asheville, North Carolina

See the full list from Orkin.

If your home required a service call, Orkin officials said it had nothing to do with a failure to keep a neat house.

"Any type of home is prone to bed bugs. It has nothing to do with sanitation," Orkin entemologist Tim Husen said. "We have treated for bed bugs everywhere, from newly built upscale homes to public housing."

To help detect bed bugs, Orkin recommends doing the following:

• Inspect your home for signs of bed bugs regularly. Check mattress tags, seams and behind baseboards, headboards, electrical outlets and picture frames.
• Decrease clutter around your home to make it easier to spot bed bugs.
• Inspect secondhand furniture, a common way for bed bugs to be travel, before bringing into your home.
• Dry potentially infested bed linens, curtains and stuffed animals on the hottest temperature.

Bed bug infestations nationwide continue to rise, Orkin says.

“The number of bed bug infestations in the United States is still rising,” said Husen. “They continue to invade our homes and businesses on a regular basis because they are not seasonal pests, and only need blood to survive."

Last August, Terminix also ranked cities on bed bug infestations. On that list, Baltimore came in 11th.

Bed bugs are very difficult to get rid of, which makes them an infamous pest. Companies like Orkin and Terminix use a combination of insecticides combined with non-pesticide approaches, like vacuuming the insects or heat-treating mattresses. Insecticides typically are less effective than mechanical methods.

See information on bed bugs from the Baltimore City Health Department.

SEE ALSO: Baltimore Named Bed Bug Capital of America

Patch editors Dan Taylor and Eric Heyl contributed.

Image via Associated Press.