Which Cities Have the Most Bed Bugs?

Chicago has now spent five straight years as the bed bug capital of America, and that is one title no city prints on the welcome signs. The ranking comes from pest control giant Orkin, which releases an annual Top 50 Bed Bug Cities list based on where it performs the most bed bug treatments, and the 2025 edition covers treatment data from May 2024 through May 2025. Before anyone feels smug about their own zip code, a quick reality check is in order: bed bugs are about the size of an apple seed, they hitch rides in luggage and secondhand furniture rather than seeking out dirty homes, and they turn up in five-star hotels as readily as anywhere else. The list below counts down the ten metros where the exterminators stayed busiest, followed by a table of the top twenty-five. Your mattress seams may never feel the same.

1. Chicago

Chicago holds the top spot for the fifth consecutive year, an unbroken reign that no other city on the list can match. The combination that keeps exterminators busy here is easy to understand: millions of residents in dense rental housing, a pair of major airports funneling travelers through daily, and a convention calendar that fills hotel rooms year-round. Bed bugs are expert hitchhikers, and Chicago offers them more rides than anywhere else in the country.

2. Cleveland

Cleveland climbed two spots to claim second place, continuing a long run inside the top five that residents would happily trade away. Ohio has a strong claim to being the bed bug belt of America, and Cleveland anchors it, with aging housing stock and cold winters that drive both people and pests indoors for months at a stretch.

3. Detroit

Detroit moved up three places to round out the top three. The city has bounced around the upper reaches of this list for a decade, and this year it leads a notable Michigan cluster, with Grand Rapids and Flint also landing in the top twenty. Whatever is moving through the Great Lakes region's apartments and hotels, it is keeping the treatment trucks rolling.

4. Los Angeles

Los Angeles edged up one spot to fourth, proving that year-round sunshine is no defense. The metro's enormous rental market and constant churn of tourists, film crews, and new arrivals give bed bugs a steady supply of suitcases to stow away in. Renters here have meaningful legal protections, so documented infestations tend to end up in writing, which keeps reporting steady.

5. Indianapolis

Indianapolis jumped three spots into the top five, the kind of climb that gets a city noticed for the wrong reasons. As a crossroads city where several major interstates converge, Indy hosts a constant flow of conventions, races, and overnight truck traffic, and every one of those visitors brings luggage that something six-legged might be riding in.

6. Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., rose one place to sixth, demonstrating that bed bugs are a rigorously bipartisan problem. The capital's hotel occupancy runs among the highest in the country thanks to tourists, lobbyists, and government travel, and the bugs do not check security clearances. Dense rowhouse neighborhoods and group housing for interns and staffers give any introduction plenty of room to spread.

7. Grand Rapids

Grand Rapids made one of the bigger moves near the top, leaping seven spots into seventh place. A mid-sized metro outranking New York on a pest list is genuinely surprising, and it reflects how Orkin's methodology works: the ranking measures treatments performed, so a sharp local uptick in a smaller city registers loudly. Western Michigan registered loudly this year.

8. Columbus

Columbus climbed three places to eighth, giving Ohio two cities in the top ten and reinforcing the state's unfortunate specialty. A huge university population means constant move-ins, move-outs, and secondhand furniture changing hands, which is precisely how bed bugs commute. The annual August migration of futons across campus neighborhoods is, entomologically speaking, a parade.

9. Champaign

Champaign, Illinois sits ninth, and a college town of this size ranking among giants tells its own story. The University of Illinois drives tens of thousands of students through apartment leases, dorm rooms, and road trips every year, and bed bugs treat every mattress swap as a transit opportunity. Small metro, big turnover, busy exterminators.

10. Milwaukee

Milwaukee made the most dramatic entrance in the top ten, rocketing up fifteen spots from twenty-fifth a year earlier. A jump that large suggests a genuine surge in local activity rather than statistical noise, and it caps a Midwest-dominated top ten. Eight of the ten worst bed bug cities this year sit in the Midwest, which says less about cleanliness and more about density, travel, and long indoor winters.

What The Rankings Actually Measure

A few notes keep this list honest. Orkin ranks metros by the number of bed bug treatments it performed, residential and commercial combined, so the list tracks verified pest control work rather than rumors or reviews. Movement matters as much as position: New York plunged thirteen spots to fifteenth and Philadelphia tumbled twenty-two spots to twenty-fifth, drops Orkin credits to real prevention efforts, while Hartford, Connecticut debuted at thirty-fifth after a forty-eight-spot leap and Cedar Rapids, Iowa surged nineteen spots into the top twenty. Prevention remains refreshingly low-tech for everyone, everywhere: check mattress seams and headboards when you travel, keep luggage on racks instead of beds and floors, inspect secondhand furniture before it crosses your threshold, and run clothes through a hot dryer for thirty minutes after a trip. Heat is the one thing these remarkably durable insects cannot negotiate with.

The Most Bed Bug-Infested Cities In The United States

Sleep Tight Anyway

The honest takeaway from Orkin's 2025 list is that geography offers nobody full immunity. Bed bugs travel wherever people travel, the Midwest currently hosts the busiest treatment calendars, and cities can genuinely improve, as New York and Philadelphia just demonstrated with double-digit drops. The pests have been following humans around for thousands of years, and they show every intention of continuing. A two-minute mattress check at the next hotel costs nothing, and it beats explaining to everyone back home why the souvenirs from your trip have six legs.