Denver climbs to No. 8 on Orkin’s rattiest cities list

Denver is moving up in the national rankings. Unfortunately, it’s not for craft beer or hiking trails. Pest control company Orkin released its 2026 Rattiest Cities list, and the Mile High City came in at No. 8. That’s up two spots from No. 10 last year, so the rodents are clearly working hard.

Los Angeles took the top spot again, followed by Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Detroit and Cleveland came in just ahead of Denver, and Philadelphia and Baltimore rounded out the top 10. Orkin based the list on new residential rat and mouse treatments from Aug. 9, 2025, to Aug. 9, 2026. In other words, Denver homeowners called Orkin about rodents more often than people in almost every other city it serves.

Denver has been on this list for a while. It ranked as high as No. 6 in 2024 before dropping to No. 10 last year. Now it’s heading back up. The timing makes sense, too. With the first freeze arriving on the Front Range this week, mice start looking for a warm place to spend the winter, and your garage, basement or pantry looks a lot more inviting than a frozen field.

You can keep your home off Denver’s rodent scoreboard by sealing gaps around doors, pipes and vents, storing pet food and birdseed in sealed containers, and keeping firewood and clutter away from the house. If you hear scratching in the walls at 2 a.m., it might be time to call in the pros. And no, telling your friends you live in a top 10 city doesn’t count if the list is about rats.