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Tampa-St. Petersburg ranks highest in the Sunshine State

Rat. (ivabalk from Pixabay)

Pest-control company Terminix has released its list of the 50 most rodent-infested cities in the U.S., and six Florida cities managed to find a place on it.

According to the company, the list was concocted using data from over 300 Terminix branches from across the country.

More specifically, the list considers which cities had residents using rodent control services most often last year.

The top-ranked cities on the list were New York City (No. 1), the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose metro area (No. 2), and Los Angeles (No. 3). However, six cities on the list are located in Florida.

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Within the Sunshine State, Tampa-St. Petersburg placed highest at No. 17, and the Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne metro area came in just behind at No. 18.

Meanwhile, Miami-Fort Lauderdale placed a few spots down at No. 22, and West Palm Beach-Fort Pierce took the No. 42 spot toward the bottom of the ranking. And along with Mobile in Alabama, Florida’s panhandle city Pensacola was ranked No. 44.

Lastly, Fort Myers-Naples placed No. 48, and Jacksonville earned the lowest rank on the list at No. 50.

According to Terminix, signs of rodents living in a home can include small droppings found in the back of drawers and cabinets, chewed wires or floor molding, holes and gnaw marks on food packaging, urine stains in the corners of shelves, and scratching in the walls.

To prevent rodents living in your home, Terminix suggests the following measures:

  • Seal possible entry points, such as cracks and openings near doors, windows and foundations.

  • Store food in airtight containers.

  • Keep living spaces clean and remove crumbs.

  • Regularly dispose of garbage in tightly sealed bins.

  • Organize cluttered storage areas to limit possible nesting sites.

As for the rest of Terminix’s ranking, it is listed as follows:

Rank City State
1 New York City NY
2 San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose CA
3 Los Angeles CA
4 Philadelphia PA
5 Washington, D.C. DC
6 Chicago IL
7 Houston TX
8 Boston MA
9 Dallas-Fort Worth TX
10 Atlanta GA
11 Baltimore MD
12 Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto CA
13 Denver CO
14 Hartford-New Haven CT
15 Cleveland-Akron OH
16 Detroit MI
17 Tampa-St. Petersburg FL
18 Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne FL
19 Indianapolis IN
20 Pittsburgh PA
21 Cincinnati OH
22 Miami-Fort Lauderdale FL
23 Memphis TN
24 Columbus OH
25 Palm Springs CA
26 Seattle-Tacoma WA
27 Nashville TN
28 Little Rock-Pine Bluff AR
29 San Diego CA
30 Kansas City MO
31 Providence-New Bedford MA
32 Minneapolis-St. Paul MN
33 Oklahoma City OK
34 San Antonio TX
35 Austin TX
36 Harrisburg-Lancaster-Lebanon-York PA
37 St. Louis MO
38 Louisville KY
39 Wilkes-Barre-Scranton PA
40 Honolulu HI
41 Richmond-Petersburg VA
42 West Palm Beach-Fort Pierce FL
43 Fresno-Visalia CA
44 Mobile-Pensacola AL/FL
45 Monterey-Salinas CA
46 Portland OR
47 Albany-Schenectady-Troy NY
48 Ft. Myers-Naples FL
49 Birmingham AL
50 Jacksonville FL

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About the Author

Anthony, a graduate of the University of Florida, joined ClickOrlando.com in April 2022.

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