10 rattiest cities in America in 2023, according to pest control experts

• Orkin released their 2023 list of rattiest cities in America.
• Some familiar cities, like New York, made the list.
• But the number one city might surprise you.

They're small, dirty, and living in your town — rats are nearly ubiquitous across the United States. Some cities have it worse than others.

Each year the pest control company Orkin ranks America's rattiest cities based on the number of new rat treatments, including residential and public, it performed there over the year. Its poll doesn't include efforts from local government or other pest companies. 

For the ninth year in a row, the windy city is crowned champion of these cheesy little fellows. Orkin was so excited by this back-to-back winner that they released limited edition T-shirts emblazoned with the title "Top Rattiest City Chicago 2023".

Here are the top 10 rattiest cities this year, according to Orkin:

1. Chicago
2. Los Angeles
3. New York City
4. Washington D.C.
5. San Francisco
6. Philadelphia
7. Baltimore
8. Denver
9. Detroit
10. Cleveland 

From poisoned food to fumigation, rat abatement methods, otherwise known as extermination, vary wildly both in approach and success.

What's working for the rattiest cities

One method, which uses a machine to inject carbon monoxide into outdoor rat burrows, has gained popularity after being touted by New York officials as nearly 100% lethal.

Washington DC also uses this method, though they reserve it for serious infestations since the machine is difficult to lug around, Gerard Brown, program manager for rodent vector control at DC Health, told Business Insider.

Detroit is one of the many cities that uses more familiar methods, like rat poison and bait boxes. In recent years, the city has seen success with its traditional approach, Georgette Johnson, a press secretary for the city's Department of Public Works, told BI in an email.

To date, Detroit has had 1,851 rat complaints this year, compared to 2,577 in 2022 and 2,894 in 2021, she said. 

"We may soon be moving farther down the 'rattiest' city list," Johnson said.

Other cities, like Denver, opt for a more defensive strategy. When a rat complaint is lodged in the city, the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment sends someone to the location to seal rat burrows and figure out how to cut off food and water supply, Amber Campbell, a public information officer at DDPHE, told BI in an email. 

Most local governments have similar services that dispatch exterminators to homes and businesses to examine rodent complaints. What they do when they get there varies, but having face-to-face contact with citizens is helpful to educate them on how to manage their waste.

The best, and only way, the rat problem will be solved, is if people care enough to change their behavior, Brown, with the DC vector control, said. Though he's unsure how Orkin gets their numbers, he said each year, its list reinvigorates public interest in rodents, which provides the city a good opportunity to get people to listen.

What's not working for cities

The biggest battle that cities face in the rat war is one that we all have to participate in — managing trash. Most pest experts emphasize that if trash, food, and water were properly managed, there wouldn't be a rodent problem.

This can be especially difficult in cities on the waterfront, like Cleveland, San Francisco, or New York, because there's a constant source of hydration for the pests. 

In Los Angeles, Baltimore, and DC, officials have said that the pandemic led to an increase in trash at home from people working from home, which has led to more critters invading personal space. 

There are other, more acute factors that may make one year more ratty than the next.

For one, construction was blamed for recent rat problems in both Cleveland and Philadelphia. Construction can uproot the critters from their underground burrows and send them skittering across streets and sidewalks.

Other, more bureaucratic issues might make it more difficult to manage rats, like not having enough employees to address rat complaints.

For example, an investigation by the nonprofit newsroom Block Club Chicago in collaboration with Illinois Answers Project and WGN Investigates, reported that the city's departments were stretched too thin to deal with the more than 50,000 rat complaints they got per year. 

"We're outnumbered at this point. We're way outnumbered," Janelle Iaccino, marketing director for Rose Pest Control in Chicago, told Block Club.