Top 50 Bed Bug Cities: Detroit Tumbles from No. 1

DETROIT, MI — The comeback city Detroit got some fantastic news and some encouraging news in the last couple of days — and tourism officials must be hoping the encouraging news won’t tarnish the shiny accomplishment of being named ninth among The New York Times’ top 52 travel destinations. Here is another reason to travel to Detroit: The Motor City shook its notorious distinction as the top bed bug city in the United States, happily giving the title to Baltimore, which isn’t anywhere on The Times’ list of places to tae a trip of a lifetime.

Detroit is still in the top tier of the Top 50 Bed Bug Cities List released by Orkin, which determines its rankings based on where it performs the most bed bug eradication operations. The Motor City slipped all the way down to No. 7. We’ve got the blood suckers on the run.

So, feel free to travel to Detroit, because it’s one of the coolest places in the world to be right now. The city is coming back economically and now, it seems, from bed bugs.

Of course, we do understand your by-god-I-don’t-want-bed-bugs reservations. A No. 7 ranking among 50 cities isn’t something to brag about in travel brochures. If it helps, here’s a list of the 10 hotel chains with the worst bed bug reputations for bed bugs may guide your trip to travel-worthy Detroit.

• See Also: Detroit Among Top 10 Global Travel Destinations: New York Times

You do not want to bring these teensy parasitic nightmares home. You just don’t. No. 1, they will suck your blood and leave behind unsightly welts that can become infected. No. 2, they can fast for long periods of time, which presumably makes them all the hungrier when they do discover your lusciousness. No. 3, they’re nocturnal and their cryptic nature in the daytime makes them difficult to spot. No 4, they’re a devil to kill. A devil.

To fully understand just how bedeviling bed bugs can be, consider the Detroit man who actually set himself on fire a year ago to get rid of the stubborn pests. He didn’t mean to do it. He sprayed alcohol on himself and his furniture, lit a cigarette and you know what happened next from grade school science class. Four apartment units in Midtown Detroit were destroyed and another dozen were damaged. Relax. That was early in Detroit’s reign as the most bed bug-infested city in the States. It’s in the past, like the bankruptcy and Kwame Kilpatrick, and we mention it now only as an example of what not to do if you have bed bugs.

• See Also: Bedeviled by Bed Bugs, Man Sets Himself on Fire

There’s no annual bed bug census, like ornithologists have for bluebirds, but they’re multiplying at a terrifying rate, according to Orkin’s top bug doctor, entomologist and director of technical services Ron Harrison, Ph.D.

“They were virtually unheard of 10 years ago,” Harrison said in a news release. They’re a pushy lot, so now they are everywhere, at record numbers.

Nearly all (99.6 percent) of pest professionals nationwide said they treated for bed bugs at least once in the prior year when surveyed for the 2015 Bugs Without Borders Survey by the National Pest Management Association. That’s up from the past year, up from five, 10 and 15 years ago.

Bed bugs are great hitchhikers because they travel from place to place with ease, including luggage, purses and other belongings. Bed bugs can be found anywhere, from single family homes, apartments and hotels, to public places like movie theaters, public transit and libraries and offices. It is almost as if they are plotting a coup.

We know you’re ashamed, but you shouldn’t be. Bed bugs aren’t a sign of uncleanliness. They’re just as likely to take up residence in a luxury mansion as they are in public housing.

These teensy beasts are stealth. They are about the size of an apple seed when fully grown and they are excellent hiders. The first signs of a bed bug infestation are often the bed bugs themselves or small dark stains bed bugs can leave behind.

“People may have bed bugs and not know it, because many people have no physical reaction to bed bug bites,” Harrison, the Orkin entomologist, said. “That’s why it’s important for people everywhere to inspect for bed bugs regularly.”

It’s Your Fight, Too: Your Mission

Your vigilance can stand between you and the enemy bed bugs.

Regularly inspect your home for locations where bed bugs might hide during the day — mattress seams, behind baseboads and headboads, electrical outlets, picture frames— and make these, ahem, bed bug checks part of your weekly sheet-changing routine

• See Also: Bed Bugs: These 10 Hotel Chains with the Worst Reputations

Get rid of the clutter for easier inspections. Don’t let any secondhand furniture before bringing it inside your home. As long as it won’t damage the fabric, use the hottest dryer setting possible on infested bed linens, curtains and stuffed animals.

At hotels, even those that haven’t acquired a reputation for bed bugs, just remember this acronym: SLEEP.

• Survey the hotel room for signs of an infestation. Look for black or brown spots on any furniture.
• Lift and look in bed bug hiding spots: the mattress, box spring, bedskirt and other furniture, as well as behind baseboards, pictures and even torn wallpaper.
• Elevate luggage away from the bed and wall. The safest place is in the bathroom.
• Examine your luggage while repacking and once you return home from a trip.
• Place all dryer-safe clothing from your luggage in the dryer for at least 15 minutes at the highest setting after you return home.

Top Bed Bug Cities

The list of the Top 50 Bed Bug Cities is based on treatment data from the metro areas where Orkin performed the most residential and commercial bed bug treatments from Dec. 1, 2015-Nov. 30, 2016.

1. Baltimore
2. Washington, D.C.
3. Chicago
4. New York
5. Columbus, Ohio
6. Los Angeles
7. Detroit
8. Cincinnati
9. Philadelphia
10. San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose

Photo by AJ Cann via Flickr Commons