By Lara Ward
Many of us know that bed bugs have become a huge problem in France, particularly in Paris; where there have been a vast number of sightings of these insects in homes, cinemas, public transport and even hospitals. Bed bugs are brownish-red bugs which are famous for living in beds and sucking on our blood as we sleep. Their only meal is blood, and they must have it to survive. But we are not the only target of bedbugs, as they will attack most warm-blooded animals. There are many different ways to spot bed bugs in homes including: bites on skin (they are red marks usually on your face, arms or neck and they can become swollen and itchy) and spots of blood on your bedsheets from the bites or from where you may have squashed one in your sleep.
The bedbug outbreak began just before Paris Fashion Week, which took place from the 25th of September to the 3rd of October. However this is not the first time France has experienced an outbreak of bed bugs, as between 2017 – 2022 more than one in ten French households reported infestations of these creepy crawlies in their beds. But, contrary to popular belief, bed bugs can affect anyone’s home, no matter how clean or dirty it is.
Karine Fiore has informed us, “while all households can be affected by bed bugs, we have nevertheless managed to identify a number of factors that favour infestations: these include travelling and living in shared accommodation, for example”
Paris is the world’s most-visited city. In 2022, 44 million tourists visited the country. The difference this time is that these bedbugs have become resistant to insecticides, so they have adapted against the chemicals used to kill them. They have become superbugs!
In recent weeks, clips of bed bugs crawling around in high-speed TGV trains and the Paris metro have been posted to social media.
These insects usually live in mattresses, but they can also move to other places, whether it be by latching onto clothes or suitcases and hand luggage. As the UK and France are connected easily by different train services the thought that bed bugs could spread to the UK has become a dreaded reality.
There have been various sightings of bedbugs on public transport, in cinemas and homes posted all over social media. For example a video was posted, allegedly showing a bed bug on someone’s leg on the Victoria line, which has now gone viral. Bed bugs can spread rapidly as females can lay 200 – 500 eggs in her lifetime and data from the pest control company Rentokil in September showed that from 2022 to 2023, the UK had a 65% increase in bedbug infestations.
If you do find bedbugs in your homes there are various different websites you can go to for help. Professor James Logan of the London School of Hygiene has advised, “If you are unlucky enough to have bed bugs, the best thing to do is to call a pest controller as soon as possible. It is really important that you know that you have bed bugs very quickly because the earlier you catch them, the easier it is to treat an infestation. Do not try to treat the infestation yourself.”
So if you do decide to take the train at some point in the near future, keep your eyes peeled for bed bugs and try to just stand up. You don’t want a nasty little creature latching onto you without you knowing.