More and more French people are confronted with the scourge of bedbugs, these harmful insects which infest mattresses in particular. This upsurge is mainly due to the rise in travel and causes a significant mental load, according to ANSES.
They hide in mattresses, feed on blood and cause more than one nightmare. Bed bugs are on the rise in France, according to a report published on July 19 by ANSES, the National Health Security Agency. Over the past five years, more than one in ten French people have been affected by these pests, which are extremely difficult to drive out of their homes. Concretely, therefore, 400,000 homes are infested in France.
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In question, in particular: the development of travel and stays in hotels or private homes. Bedbugs then disperse more easily and invest new homes.
Bed bugs, this colossal mental burden
One evening two months ago, Kimi, 28, was dozing on her couch. “Et there, I feel something on my arm… I say to myself, ok breathe… And I saw a small bug biting me! I broke down, and I started to cry“, she says.
Bed bugs are no stranger to Kimi, since she already had them two years ago. This ordeal has triggered daily anxiety: hypervigilance at night, but also during the day since morning and evening Kimi inspects the seams of her mattress, the box spring, the baseboards, the electrical outlets and the window sills. “Since I’ve been through this, I don’t do a night right anymore“, she confides.
“Public transport, I haven’t taken it for a while, but then I take it even less. I liked going to the hotel for the weekend, but I do it less now”.
Kimi, victim of bed bugsat franceinfo
Bedbugs lead to a double penalty: to the itching of the bites is added the gaze of those around you. “You feel a little bit rejected, because then everyone pays more attentionlists Kimi. We hear phrases such as ‘I hope there are no bedbugs in your bag’, ‘Did you shake your things well before putting them in?’, etc. Bug, bug, bug, bug! In fact, I feel like I’m really associated with that word.”
According to the National Health Security Agency, the impact of bedbugs on the mental health of French people amounted to nearly 80 million euros in 2019.
Resistance to insecticides
The misconception often heard about bed bugs is that they thrive in a dirty environment, which is false, replies ANSES. “The bed bug feeds on your blood, that’s all it cares about, so whether you sleep in silk sheets or on a smashed mattress, for this insect, it’s the same“, thus specifies Jean-Michel Bérenger, entomologist. And there is no correlation either with the level of income of the people affected.
Steaming or freezing are the best ways to get rid of it, according to an expert
According to ANSES, it is also the growing resistance of these pests to insecticides that promotes their proliferation. To get rid of it, it is therefore necessary to favor non-chemical methods, such as dry heat or freezing. Note, however, that to say goodbye to these little beasts, you have to put your hand in your wallet: calling on professionals costs an average of 866 euros per household, 300 million euros per year nationally.