Raise your hands, Massachusetts. Who's a fan out there of that nasty little carrier of filth and pestilence known as the cockroach? Anyone?...Bueller?...Anyone? Nobody? Me neither.

And believe me when I tell you cockroaches are EVERYWHERE. Doesn't matter the living conditions or climate. I've lived all over the country and I know this: Even if you can't see them, they are there.

In Florida, they're called "palmetto bugs". That's just a fancy name for "cockroach". Oh, and they are HUGE. I mean palmetto bugs are GINORMOUS COCKROACHES. And I don't like them...and I never will.

Recently, Pest Gnome, the experts at connecting you with the best exterminators in your area, conducted a study looking into which cities in the country have the biggest roach problems.

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Would you believe that a city right here in the Commonwealth made the 25 Roachiest Cities in America list? I kid you not. Are there any budding directors out there? There's a horror movie to be made out of this, I'm telling you.

Pest Gnome compared cities across several metrics such as the share of homes with signs of cockroaches, access to pest control professionals, and the average number of extremely hot days (cockroaches love heat!) to come up with the results.

Here are the 25 Roachiest Cities in America, according to Pest Gnome:

  1. Houston, Texas
  2. San Antonio, Texas
  3. Tampa, Florida
  4. Phoenix, Arizona
  5. Las Vegas, Nevada
  6. Miami, Florida
  7. Atlanta, Georgia
  8. Birmingham, Alabama
  9. Dallas, Texas
  10. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
  11. New York, New York
  12. Richmond, Virginia
  13. Los Angeles, California
  14. Washington, DC
  15. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  16. Baltimore, Maryland
  17. Riverside, California
  18. Chicago, Illinois
  19. Minneapolis, Minnesota
  20. San Jose, California
  21. Boston, Massachusetts
  22. Detroit, Michigan
  23. San Francisco, California
  24. Rochester, New York
  25. Seattle, Washington

I guess it's a small comfort, but at least Boston wasn't in the Top 20, or the Top 10 for that matter. Thank goodness for small favors. Take a look at the full study by visiting Pest Gnome's website here.

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