For years, the nightmare of Paris has been the proliferation of rats. Now the invasion of bedbugs is causing alarm in the French capital, also in cinemas, trains and the subway, to the point that the City Council has requested urgent help from the Government. There are just three hundred days left until the opening of the Olympic Games and the plague can cause serious image damage.
Bed bugs are a problem throughout France, but the case of Paris is especially serious as the major sporting competition approaches. Mayor Anne Hidalgo's number two and probable dolphin, Emmanuel Grégoire, has just sent a letter to the Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, asking for an immediate and energetic action plan "at the height of this plague when all of France is preparing to welcome the Olympic and Paralympic Games.”
The Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune, has called a crisis meeting for next week to take measures after bed bugs have been detected in seats on the Parisian metro network – specifically line 8 – as well as in SNCF convoys, the equivalent of Renfe in Spain, including high-speed trains (TGV).
Last July, the National Health Security Agency (Anses) published an exhaustive report of almost three hundred pages dedicated to bedbugs. According to their data, 11% of French homes were affected by the plague between 2017 and 2022.
Bed bugs disappeared from daily life in developed countries in the 1950s. They reappeared in the nineties. This return is explained by various reasons, including the exponential increase in travel and the growing resistance of bedbugs to insecticides. Insects or eggs can hide in clothing and suitcases. Therefore, its mobility is high.
The newspaper Le Parisien yesterday dedicated its editorial to “vampires under the sheets” and pointed out that bedbugs are “the new domestic terror of the French.” The bad news is that it is very difficult to eliminate them. The good news is that in principle they do not transmit diseases, unlike ticks and fleas. “In the current state of knowledge, the bedbug is not considered a vector of a pathogenic agent,” says Anses. When biting, they cause simple, but annoying, skin lesions.
Bed bugs, which love the night and feed on blood, have coexisted with humans for millennia. Contrary to popular belief, they are not the result of a lack of hygiene. Interclassists by nature, in Paris they live in both the most popular peripheral neighborhoods and the elitist 16th arrondissement.
When feeding, bed bugs absorb blood up to six times their own weight. Females lay about five eggs a day. This extraordinary fecundity and resistance to insecticides makes it so difficult to eliminate them. A special anti-pest service for bed bugs can cost, in France, up to 500 euros for an average home. That includes two disinfection sessions, separated by several days. Other alternatives to avoid the toxicity of chemicals is to wash all clothes at more than 60 degrees Celsius or put them in the freezer for 72 hours. The war against bed bugs is arduous and victory can be short-lived. Paris is now on the front line and time is of the essence.
