Where Is America's Mosquito Capital?

Bakersfield, California, has earned the sorry spot as the nation’s top city for a population desperate to get rid of mosquitos, according to new research from Terminix Global Holdings Inc TMX.

What’s The Buzz? Terminix based its rankings on data from Google Trends with a focus on mosquito-related search terms during 2020.

The company then number-crunched this data to determine the locations with the highest proportion of mosquito-related searches compared to city population.

Bakersfield, which gained a level of pop culture awareness as the location of a classic Buck Owens tune, turned up as the top city where residents turned to their search engines to fight off mosquitos. Bakersfield was one of five California cities on the Terminix top 25 list, with Florida leading the nation with six localities full of mosquito-pestered residents.

The full top 25 list consists of the following cities:

• Bakersfield, California
• Jonesboro, Arkansas
• Fort Myers, Florida
• Washington, D.C.
• Joplin, Missouri
• Corpus Christi, Texas
• Fresno, California
• Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida
• Flint, Michigan
• Panama City, Florida
• Los Angeles, California
• Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
• South Bend, Indiana
• Lansing, Michigan
• Waco, Texas
• Jacksonville, Florida
• West Palm Beach, Florida
• Austin, Texas
• Tucson, Arizona
• Orlando, Florida
• McAllen, Texas
• San Antonio, Texas
• Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas
• Wilmington, North Carolina
• San Diego, California

Deadly Stings: Terminix noted that mosquito-borne diseases are responsible for more than one million deaths globally each year, including malaria and Zika.

In the U.S., the most common serious diseases transmitted by mosquitos include West Nile virus and encephalitis.

“For those concerned about mosquitoes, Terminix offers an effective solution to immediately begin reducing mosquito populations in your outdoor living space,” said Dan Baldwin, director of technical services for Terminix.

And if that doesn’t convince you, then consider the piano-pounding advice of Liberia’s Congresswoman Malinda Parker:

(Photo: Mosquito photo by 631372 from Pixabay.)