Bed bugs have become unexpected protagonists of recent weeks in France. They are the topic of the moment. These small reddish-brown insects have opened news, newspapers and taken over some radio programs. The phenomenon began with a series of complaints on social networks and spread to the point of forcing the authorities to react, ten months before the celebration of the Olympic Games in the capital. The Paris City Council has asked the government to implement a plan to fight these insects and the Ministry of Transport has announced a meeting this week with Parisian train and metro operators, where their presence has been detected.
There is no updated data on the scope of the plague, but the images and videos that have circulated on networks have alarmed and disgusted both the population and the authorities. A widely circulated video shows, for example, one of these insects – which feed on human and other animal blood – walking happily on the armrest of a train seat. Testimonies of their presence in cinema seats and in public places such as the waiting room at Paris-Roissy airport have also gone viral.
Given the increase in these complaints, the film groups MK2 and UGC have issued separate statements to try to reassure their customers and inform them about the measures applied to avoid the infestation of their rooms. "Bedbugs can affect everyone" and their resurgence in the territory "is a reality," the Government stressed. The latest count by the national health agency (Anses), published in July, warns that one in ten households was infested by these parasites between 2017 and 2022. A toll-free number has existed since 2020 to answer any questions about this pest.
Disinfection companies have also registered an increase in demand to clean private homes, although they clarify that the problem is not new. Insects almost completely disappeared from everyday life in the fifties of the last century, but they have resurfaced in recent decades. It's not clear why. The French Ministry of Health, which has just updated its guide on how to act in case of infection of bedbugs, points to the increase in international travel and the resistance of animals to insecticides.
Political battle?
The Minister of Transport, the liberal Clément Beaune, announced on Friday that he would bring together transport operators this week to "reassure and protect" citizens and coordinate the fight against the presence of these blood-sucking insects. Bed bugs can grow to be seven millimeters long and their females can produce up to 10 eggs a day.
His announcement came the day after the Paris City Council, governed by the socialist Anne Hidalgo, asked for "an action plan at the height of this plague" to the Government, with which it maintains tense relations. In a letter sent to Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, Paris Deputy Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire urged the organization of a "national congress" on the pests and demanded that the regional health agency bear "the financial" and "psychological" cost of disinfection.
"Bed bugs are a public health problem and should be declared as such," insisted Grégoire, number two of the City Council of the capital, one of the densest in Europe and which will host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2024. In its report, the health agency recalls that eliminating bedbugs from a house costs an average of 886 euros per household. It also warns of the stigmatization suffered by affected people.
In fact, the Government had already implemented in 2022 an inter-ministerial plan to fight bed bugs. The program includes, among others, improving pest prevention through information campaigns, guiding those affected to professionals in the sector and clarifying who is responsible for disinfection costs when the home is rented.
Collective psychosis?
The omnipresence of the subject has contributed to generate a certain psychosis in the population. Images of the insect parade on television networks and, when you open the newspapers, you can find elaborate infographics about their favorite hiding places or their high reproduction capacity.
For Antoine Pelissolo, a psychiatrist specializing in anxiety, the accusations in networks have contributed to create a "collective panic effect", according to the newspaper Le Figaro, which recalls in its article that the insect does not transmit diseases.
On Thursday, a train driver on the Paris train network posted an image of the interior of a cabin with what appeared to be a bedbug. The national railway company, SNCF, said however that it did not correspond to the animal in question, according to the verification section of the newspaper Libération, Checknews. Meanwhile, some people prefer to stand on transports. Just in case.
You can follow CLIMA Y MEDIO AMBIENTE on Facebook and X, or sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
Read more
I'm already a subscriber