2021 Summary of Pest Control Statistics

 

2021 Summary of Pest Control Statistics

As 2021 wrapped up, we look at summaries of pest populations and infestations across the United States. While a lot of the information for the year is still being compiled prior to publishing, here are some interesting stats we’ve found on some of the most common pests.  

Cockroach Infestations

According to the United States Census Bureau, between April 2020 and April 2021 roughly 14 million housing units in the U.S. reported having a cockroach problem. With regards to 15 of the most populated metropolitan areas, this comes out to an average of 11.3% of households experiencing a roach sighting or infestation. 5 of these 15 cities surpass this national average including (in ascending order) Los Angeles, CA; Phoenix, AZ; Miami, FL; Atlanta, GA; and Houston, TX.

Mosquito-Borne Diseases

While populations of mosquitos can be difficult to track, the spread of mosquito-borne diseases are recorded well in the United States. Currently, the data for cases of West Nile virus has just been released for 2021 as of December 14^th. This data reveals that there has been a total of 2,445 cases, of which 1,688 (69%) resulted in microinvasive diseases including encephalitis and meningitis.

Most states reported no more than 10 cases per county however a few states broke this mold with the following stats:

11-20 cases in a county – California, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, Michigan, Illinois

21-50 cases in a county – Colorado, Texas, Illinois

50 cases in a county – Arizona

Maricopa County in Arizona had, by far, the most cases of West Nile in 2021 at a rate of 1,224 infections. Furthermore, neighboring counties, Pinal and Pima, reported the third and fourth highest infection rates in the U.S. at 102 and 88 cases respectively.

Rodent Infestations

The number of cases of rodent infestations in the United States are directly and negatively correlated to wages with higher income housing having far less instances of roach problems than homes of those who are closer to or beyond the poverty line. Between April 2020 and April 202, the United States Census Bureau recorded over 14.5 million cases of residential rodent sightings with the national average being 11.9% of homes. Philadelphia, MD had the highest percentage of residents encountering rodents during this time with an average of 18.9%, while Phoenix, AZ had the lowest percentage at a 3.1% average. In a 2021 survey conducted by Readex Research, homeowners and renters in the U.S. the had experienced rodent problems were asked to rate which rodents they had problems with throughout the year with the following results:

House Mice – 76%

Norway Rats – 52%

Roof Rats – 44%

Deer Mice – 25%

Meadow Voles – 14%

Pack Rats – 9%

Other 5%

Tick Bites

According to the CDC, the cases of reported tick bites came in at a total of 2,209 for the year of 2021. Thankfully, this was a clear decrease compared to the average cases in the United States between 2017 and 2019. These cases also still followed the same trends of the following years with cases spiking in the Spring and another mini spike in Autumn around September and October. The largest spike of the year was the week of May 31^st through June 6^th with a total of 116 reported cases. While the weeks of January 18^th through January 24th and February 15^th through February 21^st, were tied as the weeks with the lowest rate of bites only recording 4 bites each week.

Citations

Bureau, U. S. C. (2021) Residents of 14 million housing units reported seeing roaches, 14.8 million saw rodents in last 12 months, Census.gov. The United States Census Bureau. Available at: https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/04/how-many-american-homes-have-pests.html (Accessed: January 3, 2022).

Preliminary Maps & Data for 2021 (2021) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/westnile/statsmaps/preliminarymapsdata2021/index.html (Accessed: January 3, 2022).

Tick bites by week and Month (2021) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/tickedvisits/tick-bite-by-week-month.html (Accessed: January 3, 2022).

West Nile Virus 2021 Provisional Human Data (as of: 12/14/2021) (no date) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Available at: https://wwwn.cdc.gov/arbonet/Maps/ADB_Diseases_Map/index.html (Accessed: January 3, 2022).