DAILY DIRT: Well … rats! Chicago remains rodent capital of nation

Daily Dirt for Monday, Nov. 18, 2024

Ten years and counting for the Windy City atop an unwanted throne … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 1,116 of The Daily Dirt.

1. The next time you’re thinking about taking a trip to Chicago, here’s some food for thought:

For the 10th consecutive year — that’s T-E-N-T-H — Chicago has secured the No. 1 position atop Orkin’s Top 10 Rattiest Cities list. 

And that doesn’t include the politicians.

According to Orkin, this decade-long dominance can be traced, in part, to Chicago’s abundance of alleys that provides rodents with hidden havens, offering plenty of space to hide while feasting on trash. Rodents also love to burrow, finding shelter beneath subway tracks or around underground pipes. In these hidden spots, the rodent population can flourish if left unchecked.

Mice and rats are a serious concern to the millions of homeowners who deal with infestations each fall. As the weather cools, rodents seek warm shelter and food sources.

“Rodents can cause a lot of structural problems for property owners,” says John Kane, Orkin National Accounts Entomologist and Quality Manager. “They can get in around piping and even chew through walls. These tiny culprits tend to chew through wiring, which poses an increased risk of fires.”

Rodents eat about one or two ounces of food a day, which is the equivalent of a slice of bread. Even if they’re not eating, mice and rats are constantly chewing. A rat’s teeth have a rating of 5.5 on the Mohs hardness scale, which means they are powerful enough to chew through steel garbage cans.

Orkin researchers collected this year’s data from September 2023 through August 2024. The results indicated the top 50 rattiest cities are:

• 1. Chicago
• 2. Los Angeles
• 3. New York
• 4. San Francisco
• 5. Washington
• 6. Denver
• 7. Philadelphia
• 8. Detroit
• 9. Baltimore
• 10. Cleveland

Rats also reproduce quickly, causing a small infestation to become a big problem, sometimes before property owners even realize the animals are nearby. Rodents are known to spread illnesses, including Leptospirosis, Salmonellosis, LCM, plague and typhus.

2. Did you know (Part 190)

• That Lay’s Nashville Hot Chicken-flavored potato chips have been relaunched. 
• That Dunkin’ Pumpkin Spice Goldfish Grahams are officially on the market.
• That Ghiardelli is now offering milk chocolate caramel apple squares.
• That Walmart’s Pumpkin Spice Cakes (in the familiar Marketside brand 8-packs) will likely be one of the fall season’s major snack treats. And there is icing on the top, too.
• That Sam’s Club now has Autumn Squash Soup.

3. We’ve officially hit the stretch run in college football’s regular season. Here’s the latest Daily Dirt Top 10:

• 1. Oregon (11-0): Everybody gets a mulligan, and the Ducks used theirs in that narrow win over Wisconsin. Oregon closes the regular season Nov. vs. Washington.
• 2. Ohio State (9-1): If the Buckeyes can take down Indiana this week, followed by a win over Michigan that would elevate Ohio State into the Big Ten title game, most likely against Oregon. If OSU runs that impressive trifecta it will enter the postseason as the No. 1 seed.  
• 3. Indiana (10-0): The first major college football game I ever attended was Nov. 5, 1966 at Ohio Stadium. The Ohio State opponent was Indiana, and the Buckeyes won 7-0 in a rainy Saturday afternoon. I’ll take that same result this week, although I expect the final score to be in the neighborhood of 42-35 this time around. For the record, the Buckeyes have won 23 in a row vs. the Hoosiers.
• 4. Texas (9-1): There seems to be a growing concern that the Longhorns are the most overrated team among the playoff contenders. Texas has no signature wins and a loss to Texas A&M later this month could knock it clean out of the playoffs.
• 5. Ole Miss (8-2): The Rebels have red-hot Florida this week.
• 6. Georgia (8-2): That report of the Bulldogs’ death proved a bit premature. By the way, Kirby Smart is now 20-9 vs. top-10 opponents.
• 7. Alabama (8-2): There are only so many openings for SEC at-large teams in the playoffs, which presumably is what the Tide would be. That’s why Alabama’s final two regular-season tests against Oklahoma and Auburn have become doubly important.
• 8. Penn State (9-1): My gut feeling is Penn State will somehow figure out a way to miss the playoffs.
• 9. Colorado (8-2): Coach Prime in the postseason? Oh my!
• 10. Boise State (9-1): Will Bronco coach Spencer Danielson be lured away from Boise in the offseason? 

On the bubble:  Tennessee (8-2), Texas A&M (9-2), Arizona State (8-2), SMU (9-1), Miami (9-1), Notre Dame (9-1), BYU (9-1), South Carolina (7-3).

Steve Thought O’ The Day — Some people are scared of heights. I’m afraid of widths.

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. Steve will be sad when the SEC has more teams in the CFP than the B1G, but the truth hurts. #KingSEC