Locals, tourists and officials in France’s capital are dealing with an unusual problem – the city is swarming with bedbugs. Image: Marcos Abreu, via Pexels
Locals, tourists and officials in France’s capital are dealing with an unusual problem – the city is swarming with bedbugs.
The tiny insects have been spotted in hotels, airports, movie theatres, the metro, and even on a passenger ferry travelling from Marseille to Tangiers in Morocco.
Paris Deputy Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire has called upon French authorities to confer with stakeholders and develop a plan of action to fight the encroaching insects.
“Faced with the scourge of bedbugs, we must act!” Grégoire said on social media this past Thursday.
“This is a public health problem where all stakeholders must be brought to the table. It is up to owners and insurers to cover the costs of getting rid of these pests.”
French Health Minister Aurélien Rousseau tried to ease public concern over the bugs in an interview on Tuesday.
“There is no reason for general panic. We are not invaded by bedbugs,” said Rousseau.
However, Parisian pest control companies specialising in insect infestations reported being “overwhelmed” in recent weeks, and a government agency reported that more than one in 10 households were infested by bedbugs between 2017 and 2022.
London-based microbiologist and bed bug exterminator, David Cain, said that the insects had become far more prevalent in recent years.
“Business is already booming. I started doing this in 2005, when bedbugs were rare and obscure, but [they are] not any more.
“If everyone had listened to me in 2006 and started a public education campaign, this wouldn’t be happening.”
The current outbreak is poorly timed for government officials and Olympic organisers, who are preparing for the 2024 Summar Olympics to take place in Paris in just 10 months’ time.
Experts state that the spread of bedbugs is completely unrelated to hygiene conditions, rather, it relates to the insects’ high fertility rate, their increasing resistance to insecticides, and increased travel and tourism allowing them to spread.
France’s national health agency recommends that people check their hotel beds when travelling and exercise caution when bringing preowned furniture into their homes.
