Philadelphia No Longer A Top-10 Bed Bug City: Orkin

PHILADELPHIA — Two words can shake even the sturdiest of households: bed bugs. They are tiny blood-sucking bugs that, once loose, can leave you itchy and cause thousands of dollars in property damage.

However, Philadelphia is no longer a top-10 bed bug city, according to the pest control professionals at Orkin.

Orkin released its list of the most bed bug-ridden cities in the nation, and Philadelphia went down in the ranks (that's a good thing).

Philadelphia came in at No. 12 on the list. Last year, Philly was ranked No. 10

A description for the tiny parasites on the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website sounds more like something from a horror movie than an actual living creature: They "feed solely on the blood of humans and animals while they sleep."

Previously, Baltimore was the No. 1 city for bed bugs, but its nearby neighbor and 2019 runner up Washington D.C. took the top spot in 2020.

1. Washington D.C.
2. Baltimore
3. Chicago
4. Los Angeles
5. Columbus, Ohio
6. New York
7. Detroit
8. Cincinnati
9. Indianapolis
10. Atlanta

See the full list of cities here.

"While bed bugs have not been found to transmit any diseases to humans, they can be an elusive threat to households," said Chelle Hartzer, an Orkin entomologist. "They are excellent hitchhikers, and they reproduce quickly which make it nearly impossible to prevent bed bugs. Sanitation has nothing to do with where you’ll find them."

The bugs are reddish-brown and range from as small as 1 millimeter to as large as 7 millimeters, or about the size of Abraham Lincoln's head on a penny on the larger end of the scale. They can also live for several months without a blood meal, federal health officials said.

And they don't discriminate. They're found across the globe, including in five-star hotels and on public transit. Most often, they're found in areas where people sleep. This includes apartments, shelters, rooming houses, hotels, cruise ships, buses, trains and dormitories. It's harder to find them during the day.

They're pretty good at hiding in places such as mattress seams, box springs, bed frames, headboards, dresser tables, inside cracks or crevices, behind wallpaper, or any other clutter or objects around a bed. In fact, they often live within 8 feet of where people sleep.

Bed bug bites affect each person differently. Some bed bug bites won't physically show up at all, others will leave small marks that can take as long as two weeks to develop. And you might not know you've been bitten. The parasites actually "inject" — that's the CDC's language — an anesthetic and an anticoagulant into you, preventing you from realizing you've been bitten.

"Most people do not realize they have been bitten until bite marks appear anywhere from one to several days after the initial bite," the CDC wrote on its website.

While bed bugs are not considered dangerous, they can lead some to experience serious allergic reactions that require immediate medical attention.

Once bed bugs are established, they multiply quickly.