Terminix(R) Announces Top Cities for Mosquitoes, Based on Twitter Complaints

MEMPHIS, TN--(Marketwired - May 18, 2015) - When it comes to the battle against annoying mosquitoes, the biggest buzz comes from small towns across the United States.

According to research by Terminix^®, the leading provider of termite and pest control services in the United States, the worst whining about mosquitoes came from Goodland, a small town in the northwest corner of Kansas. Terminix searched through approximately 200 billion tweets posted in 2014 to determine which United States city is most pestered by mosquitoes.

The research comes as U.S. travelers gear up for Memorial Day, the unofficial start of summer when an estimated 36.1 million people travel¹. While large cities like New York and Chicago showed up most often in mosquito rants on Twitter, Terminix found that when evaluated fairly -- per capita -- it's the smaller towns that are humming with complaints. The top 10 cities with the most grumbling about mosquitoes on Twitter, per capita, are:

1. Goodland, Kan.
2. Safford, Ariz.
3. Bowling Green, Ohio
4. Petoskey, Mich.
5. Glenwood Springs, Colo.
6. Myrtle Beach, S.C.
7. Bemidji, Minn.
8. Shawnee, Okla.
9. Paragould, Ark.
10. London, Ky.

"Mosquitoes are a nuisance people don't have patience for and many of our customers have taken their hatred online," said Stan Cope Ph.D., director of entomology and regulatory services for Terminix. "Most people don't know that there are effective ways to prevent these pests from ruining the time they spend outdoors this summer."

Terminix recently debuted its eco-friendly mosquito service in branches across the country. This highly effective method for drastically reducing mosquito numbers employs an exclusive Attractive Targeted Sugar Bait (ATSB), which is safe for use around kids, pets and food. The natural active ingredient in ATSB is garlic oil, which is blended with fruit extracts to bait the mosquitoes. The mosquitoes feed on the garlic and die shortly after. The service is performed monthly and is proven to kill more than 90 percent of mosquito populations in two to three weeks².

Other interesting findings include:

• Based on the number of mentions alone, New York City would have earned the top spot. More than 11 percent of all tweets about mosquitoes as pests came from the Big Apple -- followed by Chicago (5.9%), Houston (4.3%), Los Angeles (3.5%) and Atlanta (2.9%).
• Top hashtags associated with mosquito mentions included #worldmalariaday, #itchy, #summer and #beer.
• Top words associated with mosquito mentions on Twitter included bite, kill, spray, hate and itch.
• According to the analysis, women are more vocal about their pest problems than men -- 62 percent of analyzed tweets came from women, and 38 percent came from men.

To find the nation's most bitter bite victims, Terminix analyzed 726,143 geo-tagged tweets shared between Jan. 1, 2014, and Dec. 31, 2014, mentioning "mosquito" as a pest. Rankings were determined based on the number of tweets per capita in each given city, and only English-language tweets shared from the United States were evaluated. Terminix used Crimson Hexagon social media analytics software to collect this data from Twitter.

Terminix mosquito control services are backed by the Terminix Ultimate Protection^® Guarantee, which gives homeowners the ultimate peace of mind.

In addition to ATSB, Terminix also offers a knockdown solution for immediate adult mosquito kills, larvicide to kill the immature stages developing in water and other methods to eliminate the pests.

For more information, visit Terminix.com or call your local Terminix branch.

About Terminix^®
Terminix is the leading provider of termite and pest control services in the United States. Headquartered in Memphis, Tenn., Terminix services approximately 2.8 million residential and commercial customers in 47 states and 22 countries. Terminix provides pest control services and protection against termites, rodents and other pests threatening human health and/or safety. Terminix is a business unit of ServiceMaster Global Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SERV), a leading provider of essential residential and commercial services. To learn more about Terminix, visit www.Terminix.com.

About ServiceMaster^®
ServiceMaster Global Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SERV) is a leading provider of essential residential and commercial services, operating through an extensive service network of more than 8,000 company-owned, franchised and licensed locations. The company's portfolio of well-recognized brands includes Terminix^® (termite and pest control), American Home Shield^® (home warranties), ServiceMaster Restore^® (disaster restoration), ServiceMaster Clean^® (janitorial), Merry Maids^® (residential cleaning), Furniture Medic^® (furniture repair) and AmeriSpec^® (home inspections). We serve residential and commercial customers through an employee base of approximately 13,000 company associates and a franchise network that independently employs an estimated 33,000 additional people. The company is headquartered in Memphis, Tenn. Go to www.servicemaster.com for more information about ServiceMaster or follow the company at twitter.com/ServiceMaster or facebook.com/TheServiceMasterCo.

¹ AAA. (2014). AAA/HIS Forecast Calls for 36.1 Million Travelers This Holiday, an increase of 1.5 percent from 2013 [Press release]. Retrieved from http://newsroom.aaa.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/2014-Memorial-Day-Holiday-Forecast-Report.pdf

² "ATSB Trial Summaries Israel 2013: ATSB with garlic oil encapsulated in beta-Cyclodextrin as active ingredient" by Dr. Gunter Mueller.

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