Ohioans who lived in more than 752,000 housing units across the state saw rodents last year, and residents in approximately 128,500 housing units encountered cockroaches, according to the latest data from the American Housing Survey of the US Census.
Dayton ranked 28th on Orkin’s Top Bed Bug Subway Areas list released earlier this year and rose 21 spots from the company’s 2020 rankings.
Only Toledo saw a bigger leap: The Glass City moved up from 50th place to 27th place.
This year’s ranking is based on bed bug treatments from December 1, 2019 to November 30, 2020.
Chicago topped the list, followed by Baltimore and Washington DC
Columbus took 5th place; Cleveland 6th; and Cincinnati 8th.
Bed bugs feed on human blood and often spread by hiding in luggage and other personal items.
The elusive, nocturnal insects are often found in furniture, mattresses, box spring beds and behind headboards.
They also multiply quickly and can survive months without a meal.
“As soon as they go to a hotel room or home, their population will grow,” Hottel said with Orkin. “Women can lay one to five eggs a day and lay 200 to 500 eggs in their lifetime.”
Cities that are popular tourist and travel destinations are more likely to have bed bug cases, he said, and there has been less commercial demand for bed bug services during the pandemic.
Hottel said he anticipates increased requests for bed bug services when the trip gets back on its feet.
A-1 Able Pest Doctors saw a drop in bed bug calls during the pandemic, which makes sense given that they’re social insects, said Megan Crawford, president of the company with locations in Dayton, Springfield and Troy.
“You are amazing hitchhikers,” she said. “When we stop playing social aspects of our life, we take away their visibility.”
However, A-1 Able has seen increased demand for pest control and disinfection services since the outbreak began, Crawford said.
An A-1 Able Pest Doctors worker with a gassing tank. CONTRIBUTION
Residents spent much more time at home, becoming aware of insect and rodent activity that they might not otherwise notice, she said.
Crawford said local rodent problems had worsened.
Ohio is home to approximately 4.8 million occupied housing units, and people living in approximately 16% of those units said they saw mice or rats in the past year, according to the 2019 American Housing Survey data.
A truck for A-1 Able Pest Doctors in Dayton. The company slogan is: “All our patients die.” CORNELIUS FROLIK / STAFF
By comparison, residents of less than 3% of housing units across the state reported seeing cockroaches in the past 12 months.
Dayton was ranked 49th on Orkin’s list of the nation’s 50 “racy” cities, published last fall.
Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Columbus all ranked much higher on the list.
