Residents of Chicago, New York City, and Philadelphia should inspect their mattresses and comforters, as experts report that the cities now rank first, second, and third for bed bugs.
The three metropolises were found to have the most pests among a list of 50 other cities, which included Las Vegas, Miami and Houston.
Greensboro, North Carolina, jumped 25 spots in the new ranking, making the list of the 20 most bed bug-infested places in the United States.
According to the report, increased travel since the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 has led to an escalation of new bed bug infestations, reshaping the map of where these bloodsuckers are most frequently found.
However, the cases are not on par with what happened in France, where it is estimated that 11 percent of homes were infested between 2017 and 2022.
But it wasn’t the only major metropolis facing a new influx of blood-sucking insects: Milwaukee, Wisconsin moved from fifteen cities on the list to number 25; and Tampa, Florida rose ten points to 31st place.
Increased travel since the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 has reportedly led to an escalation of new bed bug infestations, reshaping the map of where these bloodsuckers are most commonly found.
Residents of Chicago, New York and Philadelphia should inspect their mattresses, as experts report that their cities ranked first, second and third for bed bugs in 2023. The new findings were based on economic data from bed bug treatments both residential and commercial.
“I think the pandemic really slowed the spread of bed bugs,” said pest control expert Richard Cooper, a research associate at Rutgers University’s Urban Entomology Laboratory. American scientist last year.
The insects’ ability to move even between apartments in the same building had been dramatically slowed by the culture of social distancing and widespread remote work and schooling policies, Cooper noted.
But the media frenzy over October’s Fashion Week wave of bed bug infestations was a sign that the insects are back to normal.
famous people like it Paris Hilton, Gigi Hadidand Kendall Jenner reported seeing crawling insects during the event.
“I always thought it would be two or three years before we started traveling again,” according to Cooper, who also runs the pest control company R. Cooper Consulting.
Increased travel since the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, experts report, has led to an escalation of new infestations, reshaping the map of where bed bugs are most commonly found. Above, a scanning electron micrograph image of such a bedbug.
The new rankings are based on data collected by the pest control giant. Orquinwhich calculated the total number of bed bug treatments for each 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 Chicago’s fourth consecutive year at the top of Orkin’s bed bug rankings, but there are other metrics 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 facing a new influx of blood-sucking insects: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, moved from fifteen cities on the list to 25th place; and Tampa, Florida rose ten points to 31st place.
Other cities that rose in the rankings were Washington DC, Atlanta, Georgia, Houston, Texas and Davenport and Orlando in Florida.
San Francisco, California ranked 41st, but fell 19 spots on the hot spots list, while Buffalo, New York also fell 13 spots to 42nd.
The insects hide in mattress fabric and crevices before emerging at night to bite their sleeping victims. Bugs can also hide in clothing, furniture, and even books. In France, people threw away infested mattresses
TO Analysis November 2023 From Google search data from all 50 US states, conducted by bedding and ‘sleep wellness’ company PureCare, they found that Oklahoma residents were the most concerned about bed bugs, with a score 99/100 in your search.
‘Using Google Trends search volume data’ Pure care‘ We determine a ‘bed bug search score’.
The score coded each state’s average search volume for the top ten bed bug-related Google queries.
Professor Dini Miller, who specializes in urban pest management at Virginia Tech, told Scientific American that deep reserves of bed bugs were building up during the pandemic lockdowns, ready to explode once travel restrictions were lifted.
Examining seats is a crucial way to ensure that you are somewhere on a bus or train that has not been exposed to bed bugs. Above, a single mother in the UK resorted to sleeping in her bathroom last November due to a bedbug infestation that left her and her children bloodied and scarred.
He noted that low-income and elderly people are most at risk for bed bug infestations, which are largely only a nuisance 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] your home,” Professor Miller told the magazine, of the pandemic-era trends.
“If they don’t travel and their kids don’t sleep in other people’s houses,” he said, “then yes, we saw a decrease in that situation.”
“But one of the increases that became very, very evident was among elderly and disabled people.”
At stake, according to Cooper and Miller, is the high cost of treating a bed bug infestation, particularly as these insects have become increasingly resistant to pesticides in recent decades.
Bed bugs do not carry disease, but the bite of one causes red, itchy welts on the skin, similar to those of poison ivy.
It can also be a laborious task for the working poor, elderly or sick, since completely eradicating a bed bug infestation involves repeated washing of clothing, Furniture inspections and wall-to-wall home cleaning.
“Although bed bugs are visible to the naked eye, they are excellent at hiding,” according to Ben Hottel, Orkin entomologist.
Not only can they hide, Hottel noted, but an infestation can get out of control fairly quickly: Female bed bugs can lay one to five eggs a day and are capable of producing 200 to 500 eggs in their lifetime.
Worse still, the insect may remain inactive, unfeeding, for several months while it waits for its next blood meal.
“Bed bugs are extremely resilient, which makes them difficult to control,” Hottel said.
While travel can increase the risk of bed bugs, the company’s entomologist noted that “it’s also important to take precautions at home.”
“Secondhand items, such as clothing and furniture, are also common hiding places for bed bugs, giving pests the opportunity to travel home with new consumers,” Hottel said.
“Examining any new items before they come into your home will help detect a bed bug infestation as early as possible.”