The votes are in, the envelope has been opened, and the winner has been read, and it appears that Chicago wins the RATTY, the award for America’s most rat-infested city!
Take a bow, Chicago. You are infested with vermin to a degree no other city is suffering.
Good job Democrats.
Not to be forgotten, though, are the runners up.
Lost Angles came in second, followed by New York City, Washington D.C., and then San Francisco in the top five.
Then comes Philly, Baltimore, Denver, Detroit, and Cleveland rounding out the top ten.
All this has been determined by pest control company Orkin in its annual review of the country’s “rattiest cities.”
“Chicago continues its first-place run in the rat race, topping Orkin’s Top 50 Rattiest Cities List for the ninth year in a row. Los Angeles moved up to the #2 ranking while New York rounds out the top three spots. Jumping up 10 spots this year is Houston to #20, and Greensboro, N.C., moves up 17 spots to take #50,” the company said.
Chicago is the reigning champion, in fact.
According to the Daily Mail:
Chicago has been the rattiest city in the country for eight years, despite the city’s efforts to tame the rat population for nearly a decade.
Residents in Chicago made more than 50,000 rat complaints in 2022. The number is a slight decline from the prior year when more than 65,000 complaints were made, according to the city’s 311 call data.
But the number is significantly higher than the rat complaints made before the pandemic.
Chicago’s Bureau of Rodent Control said it ‘investigates every reported rat sighting. Alley conditions are investigated and damaged carts are replaced. Rodenticide is placed in rat burrows to eradicate the nest.’
The bureau said it reacted to rat infestation ‘by mounting a systematic attack on the rat problems thanks to a very aggressive rodent control program.’
So, congratulations, Chicago. Winner an still champion.
The ten least rat-infested are:
(Lest ratty) Greensboro, then Charleston, Syracuse, South Bend, and Rochester.
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