Buggin' out
Texas swats the No. 3 spot on list of states most friendly to bugs
Here’s a survey with some shocking news: Texas is at the top of the list of pest-friendly states.
Thanks to its bug-friendly combination of climate, population, and environment, Texas is the No. 3 state most hospitable to pests, putting out the welcome mat specifically to roaches, mosquitoes, and rats.
The Lone Star State comes in behind Florida and California, which took the No. 1 spot.
The survey, which was conducted by, surprise surprise, a pest company called Excel Pest Services, ranked the 50 states based on data such as restaurant waste, number of landfills, and how many fruit farms each state has.
It factored in yearly average temperature, number of landfills per state, percentage of households owning a pet, and number of pest control companies.
Drumroll, please, for the states most likely to host pests overall:
- California
- Florida
- Texas
- Washington
- Kentucky
- North Carolina
- Virginia
- New Jersey
- Tennessee
- Illinois
The survey breaks down the rankings pest by pest, and Texas scores highly in three out of four:
- Texas is No. 2 on the list of states most friendly to mosquitoes (California is No. 1), thanks to its mosquito-friendly climate and access to water.
- Texas is the No. 2 state most likely to be home to rats, determined by its excess of landfills, high restaurant waste access, and lots of Google searches for “how to remove rats.”
- Texas is the No. 2 state for cockroaches. They love our climate, with the average temperature giving them optimum survival conditions.
The survey doesn’t include other vile critters like stink bugs and fire ants, but we don’t need a survey to know that Texas rules on those fronts, as well.
There is a tidbit of good news at the end: Texas doesn’t even make the list of states most likely to have ticks.