Residents of Chicago, New York City and Philadelphia should inspect their mattresses and comforters as experts report the cities now rank first, second and third in terms of bed bugs.
The three metro areas were found to have the most pests out of a list of fifty other cities, including Las Vegas, Miami and Houston.
Greensboro, North Carolina rose 25 spots in the new rankings to enter the list of the top 20 most bed bug infested places in America.
The increase in travel since the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 has led to an escalation of new bedbug infestations, according to the report – reconfiguring the map of where these bloodsuckers are most commonly found.
However, the cases are not comparable to what happened in France, where an estimated 11 percent of households were infected between 2017 and 2022.
But it wasn’t the only major metropolis to experience a new influx of blood-sucking insects: Milwaukee, Wisconsin moved past fifteen cities on the list to the #25 spot; and Tampa, Florida moved up to the #31 spot with ten.
The increase in travel since the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns in 2020 and 2021, they report, has led to an escalation of new bedbug infestations – reconfiguring the map of where these bloodsuckers are most commonly found.
Residents of Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia should inspect their mattresses as experts report their cities will rank first, second, and third in bed bugs in 2023. The new findings are based on economic data from both residential and commercial bed bug treatments.
“I think the pandemic has really crashed the spread of bed bugs,” says pest control expert Richard Cooper, a research associate at Rutgers University’s Urban Entomology Lab. Scientific American last year.
The ability of insects to move even between apartments in the same building was dramatically halted by the culture of social distancing and widespread remote work and schooling policies, Cooper noted.
But the media frenzy over the high-profile bed bug infestations during October’s Fashion Week was a sign that bed bugs are back to normal.
A-listers like it Paris Hilton, Gigi HadidAnd Kendall Jenner reported seeing the crawling insects at the event.
“I always thought it would be about two to three years from the time we started traveling again,” said Cooper, who also runs the pest control company R. Cooper Consulting.
The increase in travel since the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns in 2020 and 2021, experts report, has led to an escalation of new infestations – reconfiguring the map of where bed bugs are most commonly found. Above is a scanning electron microscope image of such a bed bug
The new rankings are based on data collected by the pest control giant Orkinwhich calculated the total number of bed bug treatments for every major US city from December 1, 2022 to November 30, 2023.
“The ranking includes both residential and commercial treatments,” the company said in a statement.
This is the fourth year in a row that Chicago has topped Orkin’s bed bug rankings, but other benchmarks exist for Americans looking to get a second opinion on which region should be most vigilant about the bloodthirsty parasitic insect.
But it wasn’t the only major metropolis to experience a new influx of blood-sucking insects: Milwaukee, Wisconsin moved past fifteen cities on the list to 25th place; and Tampa, Florida moved up to 31st with ten.
Other cities that rose in the rankings included Washington DC, Atlanta Georgia, Houston, Texas and Davenport and Orlando in Florida.
San Francisco, California ranked 41st but fell 19 places on the hotspot list, while Buffalo, New York also fell 13 places to 42nd.
The inserts hide in mattress fabric and crevices before emerging at night to bite their sleeping victims. The insects can also hide in clothing, furniture and even books. In France, people threw away contaminated mattresses
a November 2023 analysis Google search data from all 50 US states, conducted by bedding and sleep wellness company PureCare, found that Oklahomans were most concerned about bed bugs, scoring 99/100 on their search
‘Using Google Trends search volume data’ PureCare explained‘we have determined a ‘Search score for bed bugs’.
The score codified each state’s average number of searches for all ten of the top ten bedbug-related Google searches.
Professor Dini Miller, who specializes in urban pest control at Virginia Tech, told Scientific American that deep reservoirs of bedbugs were built up during pandemic lockdowns – ready to explode as soon as travel restrictions were lifted.
Examining seats is a crucial way to ensure you are somewhere on a bus or train where bed bugs have not been exposed. Above, a single mother in Britain last November resorted to sleeping in her bath due to a bedbug infestation that left her and her children bloodied and scarred
She noted that people with lower incomes and the elderly are most at risk from bed bugs, which are largely a nuisance only to those with more resources.
“Let’s say the middle class and above will pay whatever it takes to get rid of (bed bugs in) their homes,” Professor Miller told the magazine about the pandemic-era trends.
“If they’re not traveling and their children aren’t staying overnight with others,” she said, “then we have indeed seen a decline in that situation.”
“But one of the increases that emerged very clearly was among the elderly and disabled.”
At issue, according to both Cooper and Miller, is the high cost of treating bed bug infestations, especially as these insects have become increasingly resistant to pesticides in recent decades.
Bed bugs are not disease carriers, but if you are bitten by a bed bug, it will leave itchy red welts on the skin, similar to poison ivy
It can also be an arduous task for the working poor, the elderly, or the sick, as completely eradicating a bed bug infestation involves repeated loads of laundry. furniture inspections and wall-to-wall cleaning.
“Although bed bugs are visible to the naked eye, they are excellent at hiding,” says Ben Hottel, an Orkin entomologist.
Not only can they hide, Hottel noted, but an infestation can get out of hand quite quickly: Female bed bugs can lay one to five eggs per day and are capable of producing 200 to 500 eggs over their lifetime.
Even worse, the insect can remain inactive for several months while they wait for their next blood meal.
“Bed bugs are extremely resilient, making them difficult to combat,” says Hottel.
Although traveling can increase the risk of bed bugs, the corporate entomologist noted that “it’s also important to take precautions at home.”
“Second-hand items such as clothing and furniture are also common hiding places for bed bugs, giving pests the opportunity to hitchhike home with new consumers,” says Hottel.
“Examining new items before they enter your home can help you catch a bed bug infestation sooner rather than later.”