Dallas ranks among the top 10 most cockroach-infested cities in America, according to a new study.
The pest control company Pest Gnome recently compiled data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics and ranked the top 25 “roachiest cities in America.”
Dallas ranked in ninth place, while Houston took the top spot as the most roach-infested city in the nation. Another Texas city, San Antonio, was ranked in second place. The complete top 10 list is as follows:
- Houston
- San Antonio
- Tampa
- Phoenix
- Las Vegas
- Miami
- Atlanta
- Birmingham
- Dallas
- Oklahoma City
According to the study, 37% of homes in Houston showed signs of cockroaches within the past 12 months. Pest Gnome identified heat and humidity as the chief causes of Houston’s roach problem.
The most common types of roaches found in Houston are the American cockroach, also known as the palmetto bug, and the German cockroach.
The article noted that cities in the South struggle more with roaches because of the Southern climate. Roaches thrive in the region’s summer heat, and the area’s winter temperatures are often not cold enough to kill them. Pest Gnome said that roaches cannot survive extended exposure to temperatures below 45 degrees Fahrenheit.
According to Arrow Exterminating Company, cockroaches will die at temperatures between 15 and zero degrees but cannot breed at temperatures below 40 degrees.
As previously covered by The Dallas Express, another analysis by New York-based pest inspector business Doctor Sniffs ranked Dallas as seventh in the nation when it comes to sightings of pests such as roaches.
“Big metropolitan areas usually see more pest problems simply due to the higher amount of waste that’s produced,” Doctor Sniffs said in a statement to The Dallas Express. “If something is discarded and not secured, there’s a pest that will eat it, multiply, and make the problem worse.”
As reported by DX, the results of a recent city satisfaction survey suggest that Dallasites feel local officials are doing a poor job of keeping Dallas clean. Respondents noted that “Downtown is filthy” and “the city is really starting to look dirty and unkempt in some areas.”
City council members including Gay Donnell Willis have previously pointed to the issue of trash on the streets attracting rodents, as DX has covered. Willis noted that a lot of the reason trash accumulates and creates conditions attractive to pests is because well-meaning locals give food to the homeless on the street.
As the homelessness crisis proliferates in the city and Dallas’ public areas become more trash-ridden, Willis and the city council have urged the community to avoid worsening the problem and direct their contributions toward organizations equipped to assist the homeless rather than giving directly to panhandlers.