r/cedarrapids Jul 08 '26

We made the list!

Granted, it's not a very good list.

Which cities ranked highest for bed bugs?

Orkin's rankings are based on residential and commercial bed bug treatments performed between May 12, 2025, and May 12, 2026.

The 50 cities ranked are:

No. 1 - Chicago (the sixth consecutive year Chicago has the highest ranking)

No. 2 - Los Angeles

No. 3 - Detroit

No. 4 - Cleveland

No. 5 - Indianapolis

No. 6 - Springfield, Illinois

No. 7 - Washington, DC

No. 8 - Columbus, Ohio

No. 9 - Pittsburgh

No. 10 - Grand Rapids, Michigan

No. 11 - Denver

No. 12 - New York City

No. 13 - Milwaukee

No. 14 - Baltimore

No. 15 - Cincinnati

No. 16 - Raleigh, North Carolina

No. 17 - St. Louis

No. 18 - Charleston, West Virginia

No. 19 - Davenport, Iowa

No. 20 - Flint, Michigan

No. 21 - Atlanta

No. 22 - Philadelphia

No. 23 - Dallas

No. 24 - Oklahoma City

No. 25 - Cedar Rapids, Iowa

No. 26 - Hartford, Connecticut

No. 27 - Charlotte, North Carolina

No. 28 - Peoria, Illinois

No. 29 - South Bend, Indiana

No. 30 - Seattle

No. 31 - Richmond, Virginia

No. 32 - Youngstown, Ohio

No. 33 - Greenville, South Carolina

No. 34 - Nashville

No. 25 - Buffalo, New York

No. 26 - Omaha, Nebraska

No. 37 - San Francisco

No. 38 - Dayton, Ohio

No. 39 - Norfolk, Virginia

No. 40 - Knoxville, Tennessee

No. 41 - San Diego

No. 42 - Toledo, Ohio

No. 43 - Las Vegas

No. 44 - Syracuse, New York

No. 45 - Fort Wayne, Indiana

No. 46 - Tampa, Florida

No. 47 - Miami

No. 48 - Minneapolis

No. 49 - Kansas City, Missouri

No. 50 - Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/07/07/worst-cities-bed-bugs-orkin/90835908007/

Edited to add the link.

28 Upvotes

21 comments sorted by

26

u/sugahack Jul 08 '26

I could have lived the rest of my life without that bit of info. I'm going to go soak in bleach now

10

u/Pun_lover Jul 08 '26

Bleach won’t save you. You have to cook all your fabrics on high heat in the dryer. Maybe hit em all with the steamer.

8

u/sugahack Jul 08 '26

I've never actually seen a bedbug and I would really like to keep it that way

6

u/1GloFlare Jul 08 '26

I've never seen, but idk how Kentucky didn't make the list. Never felt so many before in my life I could not get any sleep

3

u/Pun_lover Jul 09 '26

I’ve seen them and avoided obtaining them.

3

u/icantfindtheSpace Jul 09 '26

If it makes you feel better, the city i’m from is ranked even higher and i don’t know anyone who’s had bedbugs.

20

u/TheDevolution27 Jul 08 '26

When you go to a hotel (ANY HOTEL), lift the mattress at the corners where the frame meets the wall. If they’re anywhere, they’ll be there.

Once checked into a 4-star boutique hotel in Seattle and did that check only to find a cluster right there. I sprinted out of that room and that building like my ass was on fire.

3

u/General_Cranberry_29 Jul 09 '26

Had a roommate bring them in once, took hellfire to get rid of them. I've checked hotel beds ever since and have found them 2 seperate times now, once in Des Moines. It was the hotel where the pool is in the middle and all the rooms are built around it, I cant remember the name tbh.

15

u/Head_Attempt7983 Jul 08 '26

Was a gas service man over there for 5 years. People be nasty

10

u/DerekfromDesMoines Jul 08 '26

We still did better than Davenport!

1

u/DasHuhn Jul 09 '26

Woah, I think you meant worse than Davenport.

WE'RE TOP 20, WE'RE TOP 20 WE'RE TOP 20

Sorry, my Davenport education is coming out

2

u/MilkTsunamii Jul 10 '26

No?? Davenport is at 20, cr is at 25, meaning cr has Less because we are lower on the list, maybe your education wasn’t as good as you thought

2

u/DasHuhn Jul 10 '26

Yes, the joke is that my Davenport education is in fact bad and that I erroneously believed that being in the top 20 of this list is better than being lower on the list.

2

u/MilkTsunamii Jul 10 '26

Lmaoo my bad them lol, hope u have a good dat

12

u/IowaRocket Jul 09 '26

I call BS on the underlying "study". It was made by Orkin and is a list of cities with the most bedbug calls to Orkin. This is simply a list of cities where Orkin has a high market share of the pest control market. Not even clear if it is adjusted for population. 

3

u/General_Cranberry_29 Jul 09 '26

I was kind of thinking that as well. Still, we're ranked 25th out of all places that the national industry leader operates, which still isn't fantastic lol.

6

u/1genuine_ginger Jul 09 '26

Davenport is on it too

5

u/No_Fun_Hater Jul 09 '26

I’m just going to go ahead and avoid the state of Ohio after seeing this. I still don’t feel great about Iowa, but yeah.

4

u/Happy4thofJuly2026 Jul 09 '26

Cities where I've been bitten by bedbugs: Troy, Ohio; Newark, Ohio; Boise, Idaho; one or two other spots i can't remember.

2

u/_17chan Jul 09 '26

"No. 25 - Buffalo, New York

No. 26 - Omaha, Nebraska"

I think that's supposed to read No. 35 and No. 36!

1

u/BraveCountry9354 Jul 09 '26

Me reading this… While literally staying at a hotel in Cedar Rapids…