BALTIMORE GETS TOP RANKING NO CITY WANTS: NO. 1 IN BEDBUGS

Baltimore is known for its historic neighborhoods, monuments, crab cakes — and, increasingly, its bedbugs.

For the second straight year, the port city ranked No. 1 on a Top 50 Bed Bug Cities list compiled by Atlanta-based pest control services company Orkin.

The list, released Monday, is based on the most residential and commercial treatments for the seed-sized bloodsuckers from December 2016 to November 2017, and reflects a rising number of infestations across the U.S., according to Tim Husen, an Orkin entomologist.

Washington, 40 miles from Baltimore, was ranked second on Orkin’s list, followed by Chicago, Los Angeles and Columbus, Ohio. The Baltimore City Health Department doesn’t have any bedbug mitigation programs, according to its website, which gives tips on identifying and controlling the ancient critters.

Bedbugs have been a nocturnal pest for at least four millennia. Although numbers were dramatically reduced after World War II, the parasites have made a comeback thanks to increased global travel, regulatory restrictions on insecticides such as DDT, and tolerance to newer, organic bedbug treatments, according to researchers at the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing at the University of Arkansas.

That’s stoking a national bedbug control industry that was worth $611.2 million in 2016. If trends continue, industry revenue could hit $1 billion in five years.