D.C. improves standing among bed bug-infested cities

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Bed bugs are great hitchhikers and can easily crawl into personal belongings like suitcases. (PRNewsFoto/Orkin, LLC)

Dick Uliano, wtop.com

WASHINGTON - Chests swell with pride when cities are placed atop various lists: Best City for Families; City with the Best Pizza; City with the Best Parks.

But the newest list of the top 50 cities might have mayors and city managers running for cover -- the Top 50 Cities for Bed Bugs.

Orkin, the pest control company, has ranked cities based on the number of bed bug treatments they conducted in 2011. Cincinnati is at the top of the list, followed by Chicago, Detroit and Denver.

D.C. is eighth on Orkin's list, but the good news for the nation's capital is that D.C. has dropped from fifth place in 2010.

"Bed bugs continue to be everywhere in the United States and appear to be moving further south than they originally were in high concentrations," said Ron Harrison, Orkin entomologist.

Reflecting the spread of bed bugs into southern climates, Los Angeles jumped from 25th place in 2010 to fifth place on Orkin's list for 2011. Dallas/Forth Worth has leaped from 50th place to seventh.

Richmond is 10th on the list, up six places. Baltimore is 18th, down six places. Salisbury is up 46 spots to No. 43.

Harrison finds the list interesting for the way it's expanded, "from the cities in the Northeast and the Midwest to the Southern cities," he said.

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D.C. improves standing among bed bug-infested cities

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