Florida has landed in the spotlight once again, but not exactly for good reason. To our surprise, the state has been crowned with an undesirable title: the most pest-infested state in the country, according to a study by Compare the Market Australia.
To conduct their study, the company analyzed Google search data for different pests across U.S. states and Australian cities. Looking at just the U.S., Florida placed in the #1 spot ahead of Washington in second and New York in third.
“That’s thanks in large part to [Florida’s] high number of snakes, the highest in our ranking across the entire U.S., with 887 per 100,000 people,” the ranking reads.
The state is also home to the second-largest termite population, with an average of 178 people per 100,000 needing to look for ways to deal with these wood-eating pests.
Like Florida, Washington state is infested with snakes. You’ll also plenty of wasps in addition to above-average numbers of ants and rats. Meanwhile, New York has one of the highest rates of rodent infestations, as well as ants and wasps. View the ranking below.
The 20 most pest infested states in the United States:
- Florida
- Washington
- New York
- Georgia
- Virginia
- Texas
- Utah
- California
- Massachusetts
- Arizona
- Nevada
- West Virginia
- Pennsylvania
- Oklahoma
- Illinois
- Oregon
- North Carolina
- Maryland
- Nebraska
- Ohio
Learn more from the study here.