This Iconic Midwestern City Is The Country's Biggest Hotspot For Bed Bug Infestations In 2025

With tourism and business travel transit come great rashes of bed bug infestations. With an influx of 113 million visitors to Chicago in 2024, 500,000 more than in 2023, it's no surprise the iconic Midwestern city is the country's biggest hotspot for these unrelentingly pesky pests. The metropolis reigns supreme on Orkin's Top 50 Bed Bug Cities list for the fifth year running, based on where the pest control company provided the most commercial and residential bed bug control between May 2024 and May 2025. The Windy City's temperate climate also enables the festering of bed bug outbreaks, which can be challenging, troublesome, and costly to quell if you inadvertently bring them home, especially since they're getting more resistant to certain treatments.

Even if you're a frequent traveler who packs the most efficient suitcase possible, bed bugs may still be steps ahead, as they're hardy voyagers who seamlessly latch on to suitcases, backpacks, purses, and other trip kit, often unnoticed. And if you're an expert at snagging extra perks when checking into your hotel, make sure these don't include the extra hematophagous roommates who nourish on blood sapped from a sleeping you. Thankfully, taking the time to perform simple inspections and preventative steps upon entering your hotel room and once you get home is very effective in minimizing a bed bug blight any time you travel, and especially during peak seasons like summer and the holidays. According to Orkin, this is how cities like Charlotte, Philadelphia, and New York celebrated massive slides down the ranks.

Although some entomology experts say the incidence of hotel room bed bugs is low, it's much better playing it safe than sorry and bugged by incessant itchiness and welts. Even if you're checking in to the lavish and luxurious five-star Langham Hotel in Chicago, it's worth spending a few minutes surveying your room for giveaways of bed bug presence on beds and linens, curtains, cushions, and other furnishing fabrics your bare skin may come in contact with. (Soft headboards are particularly easy incubators.) Look for tiny (1 millimeter to 7 millimeter) flat, appleseed- or teardrop-shaped insects in hues of tan, brown, or reddish brown; eggs resembling grains of white rice; shed exoskeletons; inky black dots of their fecal stains; and a cloyingly musty odor. You'll likely identify these telltale signs by sight (or smell), but you can also be extra vigilant by running a sticky lint roller over surfaces to pick up any missed traces.

Stow everything on racks away from furniture, and never, ever put luggage on the bed. When packing to leave, stick your belongings in sealable plastic bags to keep bed bugs from coming home with you. Eyeball your baggage once more when packing to leave, and again when you walk through your front door. Finally, sanitize all dryer-safe clothing from the trip at the highest heat for 30 to 45 minutes once removed from your luggage, as bed bugs perish in high temperatures. And this is how you can romance the world and travel happily ever after, without stressing about being stuck in a clingy, toxic relationship with the most unwelcome vacation guests, er, pests.