In the skin of information. What you need to know about bed bugs, which the government wants to eradicate

She’s small, she doesn’t jump, she doesn’t fly, but bedbugs can ruin your life. To fight against this scourge, the government has just launched a digital platform for the inhabitants of Bouches-du-Rhône. A green number already existed. On this platform, it is possible to establish a diagnosis and to be put in touch with professionals. This new tool is part of a plan adopted in 2022 which was to set up a bed bug observatory.

The idea was to draw up an inventory of the scourge in France. The observatory was supposed to see the light of day last September, but it no longer seems relevant, while communities and associations have been calling for years for the establishment of a real public policy with a budget dedicated to the fight against drawing pins.

>> “It’s horrible, because we can’t sleep”: bed bugs proliferate in French homes

400,000 homes affected in France

True small-sized vampires, bedbugs hide in bedding, walls, baseboards, and even cell phones. They have already infested more than 400,000 homes in France and 7% of French people have already been bitten. Three-quarters of disinsectization operations in France concern bedbugs.

It is very difficult to get rid of bedbugs, which feed on the blood of its victims and exhaust them morally and financially. According to the magazine 60 million consumers, Who today publishes a special pest file, when bedbugs settle in your home, it’s never for a short stay.

In addition, with their mutated DNA, bedbugs are resistant to the most dangerous insecticides. The Health Security Agency (ANSES) has also recently recommended that households avoid these insecticides. It has already identified more than 1,000 cases of poisoning, sometimes serious, and even one case of death. It is therefore upstream that we must act, put in place a real prevention policy. And no doubt it will take more than a digital platform, or a toll-free number.