They are everywhere: in hospitals, means of transport, cinemas… But what is happening in France with bed bugs? For a few days now, the tiny insects have managed to spread panic and alert the French government.

“Bugs: worse than vampires”, “Bugs! What a psycho!”… from Libération to Parisien-Aujourd’hui-en-France, vermin now occupy the front titles of French newspapers.

France faces a ‘general epidemic of bedbugs’: CNN creates disaster film, French newspaper Liberation writes in its report

Even more alarming, CNN is reporting a “widespread outbreak of bed bugs” in France less than a year before the Olympics.

Faced with the growing anguish caused by the plague, the government is abandoned on all sides. Her spokesman Olivier Veran promised yesterday “quick answers to the French”, while in the French National Assembly, the head of the Macron camp Sylvain Maillard announced that there will be a proposal for a law on the matter by December.

bed bugs

Disappeared from everyday life since the 1950s, these insects that feed on human blood have made a triumphant comeback in the past thirty years in developing countries due to a more nomadic lifestyle, consumer habits such as the use of second-hand items and growing resistance to insecticides.

The figures published in July by the National Agency for Health Safety in Food, Environment and Work (ANSES) cause concern. In France, more than one in ten households have been affected by bed bugs in the last five years.

“I can’t stop scratching”

At the beginning of autumn, bed bugs seem to have infiltrated every corner of the daily life of the French. In conversations in cafes, on the Paris metro, where no one is surprised anymore to see the person next to them inspecting the seat before sitting down. “Bed bugs are driving us crazy, I can’t stop scratching. Right now, I feel like I’m everywhere,” says a Line 11 passenger to her friend, who bursts into laughter.

At least two schools in southern France were infected and had to be temporarily closed. In northern France, a hospital’s Emergency department had to be moved for a day after outbreaks of bed bugs were discovered.

Photos and videos have flooded social media since mid-September, showing students evacuating an auditorium in Aix-en-Provence after a “suspected” Korean influencer with two million followers showing her hands full of bites allegedly from from the Paris metro, “bugs” that are supposed to be crawling on the TGV seats…

Following a demand from passengers, SNCF and RATP, the managing companies of the metro and the railway, had to intervene repeatedly to inspect the wires and reassure.

“All our materials are systematically thoroughly cleaned (…) In recent days there has been no incident of bedbugs…”, be it the metro, RER, tram or buses, RATP announced at the end of September .

Panic

Two pest control companies contacted by AFP say they have been inundated with requests from individuals or tourism professionals worried about the fallout from negative publicity less than a year before the Olympics.

“More than three-quarters of the calls we receive at the moment are about bed bugs, we understand that people are panicking,” explains Sylvain of Hygiène Services solutions. Right now, “people call us as soon as they’ve been bitten by an insect that could be anything, a mosquito, a spider…” says Sam of Expert Hygiène.

The reason there is so much concern is because “the problem affects everyone, regardless of age or social status, rich and poor,” says Pascal Delaunay, a medical parasitologist and entomologist at the hospitals of Nice. “Of course, bed bugs are not disease carriers, but they are ‘physically and mentally exhausting.’

As for their spread in France, “it is a reality difficult to deny. “For five to seven years, we have been witnessing a geometric increase in infection foci,” says the expert.

The first to be affected by this scourge were the Anglo-Saxon countries, such as Australia when it hosted the Sydney Games in 2000, and the United States for fifteen years, where significant efforts were made to stem the spread.

By comparison, “we are lagging far behind in data on the evolution of the bed bug population,” says Pascal Delaunay, who points to lags.