A Midwest City Joined America’s Rattiest Cities and the Warning Memo Came From Its Mayor

At a 2023 community meeting, residents of a major Midwest city complained to their council president about rats.

She wrote their complaints into a memo, and voters later handed her the mayor's office.

Two national exterminators have now ranked her city, and the second list is uglier than the first.

Terminix and Orkin Both Put Detroit Among America's Worst Rat Cities

Terminix pulled 2025 rodent-control records from its 300-plus branches nationwide to build its annual ranking of America's most rodent-infested cities.

Detroit landed at No. 10, up from No. 11.

That makes it the first time the Motor City has cracked the Terminix top 10.

The nine cities ahead of it are New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Houston, Chicago, Washington, Boston and Dallas.

Then Orkin released its 2026 Rattiest Cities list on October 13, 2026.

Orkin put Detroit at No. 6 based on every new residential rodent treatment from August 2025 to August 2026.

That's ahead of Cleveland, Denver, Philadelphia and Baltimore.

On Orkin's list alone, Detroit climbed from No. 8 in the 2024 rankings to No. 7 in 2025 to No. 6 in 2026.

Two different companies, two different data sets, and the same direction – the wrong one.

Look at who runs the cities on the Terminix list.

Every one of the top 10 except Dallas is run by a Democrat mayor, a pattern RedState's Becky Noble spotted right away.

Her verdict fit in five words – "Don't want rats, don't elect Democrats."

Sheffield's 2023 Memo Tied Detroit's Rats to Demolition Lots

Fox News Digital obtained a 2023 memorandum written by Mary Sheffield, then president of the Detroit City Council and now the city's mayor.

In it, she reported that rodent infestations were a main complaint at a community meeting she held.

"[Residents] shared that many demolition properties become homes for rat infestation," Sheffield wrote.

Detroit knows a thing or two about demolition properties.

The city tore down roughly 27,000 houses between 2014 and 2025 under former Mayor Mike Duggan's blight program.

That's 27,000 demolition sites scattered across neighborhoods where families still live.

Rats aren't just a nuisance.

They carry diseases like leptospirosis and salmonellosis, and they gnaw through drywall, electrical wiring and plumbing.

For a retiree in an older Detroit bungalow, a rat in the walls is a fire hazard and a repair bill waiting to happen.

The Rat Climb Started Under Duggan and Now Belongs to Sheffield

The Terminix numbers cover 2025, Duggan's final year in office.

Sheffield ran the City Council that entire year, and she sat on the council for every year of the demolition push, from 2014 until 2026.

She heard the complaints.

She put them in writing.

Then Detroit voters elected her mayor in November 2025, and she took office on January 1, 2026.

Orkin's newest rankings cover her first seven months in the mayor's office, and Detroit climbed another spot.

She flagged the demolition lots more than two years before Terminix ever put Detroit in its top 10, and the problem is hers now.

Fox News Digital reached out to her office for comment on the new ranking, and its report carried no response.

Chicago and New York Already Showed Where This Road Ends

Detroit doesn't have to guess what happens next.

Chicago sat atop Orkin's Rattiest Cities list for nine straight years by 2023 under Democrat leadership.

Los Angeles finally knocked Chicago off the top spot in 2025, and it held No. 1 again on the 2026 list.

Los Angeles County also logged 220 flea-borne typhus cases in 2025, the most it has ever recorded.

New York answered its rats in 2023 by hiring a citywide rat czar.

New York is still No. 1 on the Terminix list.

A job title didn't move the rats out.

Terminix tells homeowners to plug gaps around doors, windows and foundations and to store food in sealed containers.

That's sound advice, but no family can caulk its way out of a vacant lot next door.

A city that can knock down 27,000 houses can bait the lots and haul off the debris before the rats move in.

Sheffield has the job, the authority and a 2023 memo telling her exactly where to look.

Detroit families shouldn't have to wait for a third exterminator ranking to find out whether she meant it.

Sources:

• Andrea Margolis, "America's Most Rat-Infested Cities Ranked as Midwest Surprise Cracks Top 10," Fox News, October 12, 2026.
• Becky Noble, "Exterminator Names Top Ten American Cities for Rats – There's One Big Thing They Have in Common," RedState, October 12, 2026.
• Terminix, "Cities With the Most Rats in the US," Terminix, October 1, 2026.
• Orkin, "Los Angeles Holds No. 1 Spot on Orkin's 2026 Rattiest Cities List," Orkin, October 13, 2026.
• Orkin, "Oh, Rats! Chicago Tops Orkin's Rattiest Cities List for Ninth Consecutive Year," Orkin, 2023.
• FOX 2 Staff, "Rattiest Cities: Detroit Again Ranks in Top 10," FOX 2 Detroit, October 29, 2025.
• City of Detroit, "Mayor Duggan Provides Final Residential Blight Removal Program Report," City of Detroit, 2025.