New York is not America’s rattiest city
By Ben Cost
October 25, 2022
The Big Apple is not America’s No. 1 ratropolis.
Despite being rife with more rodents than
“Ratatouille,” New York City is not the most rat-infested city in the US. That title actually belongs to Chicago, according to a
survey by extermination firm Orkin on the rattiest cities in America in 2022.
The study is released every fall, when “rice and other rodents invade an estimated 21 million homes in the United States.” To gauge the most rodentified regions this year, the pest control company ranked 50 cities “by the number of both residential and commercial rodent treatments performed from Sept. 1, 2021, to Aug. 31, 2022.”
Orkin found that Chicago topped the list for the eighth year in a row, perhaps evidence enough that the Windy City might want to change its name to the “Ratty City.” Meanwhile, NYC —
home of Pizza Rat and other rodent celebs — weighed in as America’s second rattiest city in 2022, swapping spots with Los Angeles, which fell to the third spot in the rat-plague pantheon.
Following close behind was Washington, DC — the site of the
notorious Popeye’s rat infestation of November 2021 — along with San Francisco and Philadelphia, respectively.
The most “improved” player in the realm of rat infestation was South Bend, Indiana, which scurried up a whopping 21 spots since last year.
We’ve included the full list below:
- Chicago
- New York (+1)
- Los Angeles (-1)
- Washington, DC
- San Francisco
- Philadelphia (+1)
- Baltimore (-1)
- Cleveland (+2)
- Detroit (-1)
- Denver (-1)
- Seattle
- Minneapolis
- Boston
- Atlanta (+1)
- Indianapolis (-1)
- Pittsburgh
- Cincinnati (+2)
- San Diego (-1)
- Hartford, Connecticut (+2)
- Miami
- Milwaukee (+1)
- Houston (-4)
- Dallas (-3)
- Portland, Oregon
- Columbus, Ohio (+1)
- Richmond, Virginia (+2)
- Kansas City, Missouri (-2)
- Norfolk, Virginia (-1)
- Nashville, Tennessee (+7)
- St. Louis
- Grand Rapids, Michigan (+1)
- Raleigh, North Carolina (+3)
- Champaign, Illinois (+4)
- Albany, New York (-3)
- Louisville, Kentucky (+5)
- Sacramento, California (-7)
- New Orleans (-4)
- Charlotte, North Carolina (+4)
- Buffalo, New York (+2)
- Flint, Michigan (-6)
- Greenville, South Carolina (+3)
- Syracuse, New York (+4)
- Tampa, Florida (+7)
- South Bend, Indiana (+21)
- Portland, Oregon (-7)
- Phoenix (-3)
- Charleston, South Carolina
- Fort Wayne, Indiana (+12)
- Orlando, Florida (+3)
- Burlington, Vermont (-11)
New York City, home of Pizza Rat and other rodent celebs, is just the second rattiest city in the US, according to a survey by Orkin.
nypost.com