TEXAS — Ask any Texan, and they will likely tell you they’re no stranger to mosquitoes. A national study ranked two places in Texas among the top 10 cities where the pesky insects are most active. The state’s largest county public health department and a North Houston pest control company responded to the results.
Kenneth Bailey, a pest control technician with Mosquito and Pest Authority was on a mission last week to keep mosquitoes from bugging neighbors in a Conroe neighborhood, just north of Houston.
“We’re going to do a full inspection of the yard to see if there’s any kind of standing water, any outstanding issues for mosquitoes,” said Bailey. “After we complete the yard inspection we will do a full treatment for mosquitoes.”
He considered the work of warding off mosquitoes a welcome service to his fellow residents.
“They just want to be able to enjoy their backyard without having to be pestered by the mosquitoes,” he said.
According to Orkin, that pestering is happening more in some cities than others. Houston and Dallas ranked Nos. 7 and 8, respectively, in the country in the pest control company’s latest ranking of worst spots in the U.S. for mosquito activity. San Antonio ranked No. 41. The results are based on pest control company Orkin’s new residential treatments completed over a year starting in March 2025.
The findings come as no surprise to Mosquito and Pest Authority co-owner Lacey Baker.
“With all this wetness, just a bottle cap size of water, they can lay over 200 eggs,” Baker said. “Mosquitoes just keep breeding. Once they bite you, that mosquito is looking to lay her eggs, so the population you see, we’re in the woods, so that population just blooms all year-round.”
Baker said hot weather and humidity draws them in. But beyond the annoying bites, Harris County officials say there are bigger things to worry about, like potentially deadly mosquito-borne diseases.
“In 2026, we detected West Nile the earliest ever in January and February. We’ve seen over 50 species,” said Courtney Standlee, the director of the Harris County Public Health Mosquito and Vector Control Division. “In 2025, we had around 200+ positive areas, and in 2024, we had over 600 positive areas for disease.”
The 2025 results represent a significant year-over-year decrease, as county and city crews have stepped up efforts to rid those areas and prevent new populations. Standlee is urging neighbors around Harris County to monitor mosquito activity and treatments on the public health website.
For pest control companies, preventing the spread of diseases is a shared mission as they work to bring the Houston area further down that Orkin list.
“Anything that I can do to help people enjoy their beautiful backyards and spend time with their families outside.”