They would be everywhere: in hospitals, public transport, cinemas… But what is happening in France with bedbugs? In recent days, these insects have managed to sow panic and put the government under pressure.
“Bedbugs: from vampire to worse? “, ” Drawing pins ! What psychosis! “… of Release At Parisian – Today in France, pests now occupy the headlines of the national press. Even more alarmist, the American channel CNN even mentions a “general epidemic of bedbugs” in France less than a year before the Olympic Games.
Faced with the growing anxiety caused by this scourge, the government is being challenged on all sides. His spokesperson Olivier Véran promised on Tuesday to “quickly provide answers to the French”, while in the National Assembly, the leader of the Macronists, Sylvain Maillard, announced a proposed law on this subject by December.
Disappeared from daily life in the 1950s, these insects which feed on human blood have made a comeback over the past thirty years in developed countries thanks to a more nomadic lifestyle, consumption promoting second-hand purchases and increasing resistance to insecticides.
The figures revealed in July by the National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (ANSES) are cause for concern. In France, more than one household in ten has been affected by bedbugs over the past five years.
“I can’t stop scratching”
At the start of the school year, they seem to have intruded into every nook and cranny of French daily life. In discussions on the terrace as in the Paris metro, where no one is surprised to see their neighbors inspect their seats before sitting down. “The bedbugs are going to drive us crazy, I can’t stop scratching myself at the moment, I feel like I have them everywhere,” says a passenger on line 11 to her friend who laughs.
At least two infected schools in the south of the country have had to close temporarily. In the north, a hospital emergency department had to be relocated a day after outbreaks of bedbugs were discovered.
Amateur photos and videos indicating their presence have flooded social networks since mid-September, but not all cases are proven. We see students evacuating an amphitheater in Aix-en-Provence after a “suspicion”, a Korean influencer with two million subscribers displaying her arms covered in bites after taking the Paris metro, little animals walking on TGV seats… without them always being clearly identified.
Taken to task by users, the SNCF railway group and the Paris transport authority (RATP) had to intervene on several occasions to have their trains assessed and try to reassure them.
“All our equipment benefits from regular thorough cleaning […] In recent days, no proven cases of bedbugs have been observed in our equipment,” whether on the metro, RER, tramway or bus, RATP said at the end of September.
Overwhelmed businesses
Contacted by AFP, two pest control companies confirm that requests have recently increased sharply from individuals and tourism professionals, worried about this bad publicity less than a year before the Olympic Games.
“More than three quarters of the calls we receive at the moment concern bedbugs, we feel that people are panicking,” explains Sylvain, operator at Hygiène Services solutions. At the moment, “people call us as soon as they are bitten by an insect, and it could be anything, a mosquito or a spider…”, agrees Sam, sector manager at Expert Hygiène.
If these pests arouse such concern, “it is because the problem concerns everyone, regardless of age or social status, rich and poor alike,” believes Pascal Delaunay, parasitologist and medical entomologist at the University Hospital of Nice. “Of course bedbugs do not carry disease, but they are physically and nervously exhausting. »
As for its proliferation in France, “it is a reality that has become difficult to deny. Over the past five to seven years, we have seen an exponential increase in outbreaks of infestation,” continues the specialist.
First affected by this resurgence, Anglo-Saxon countries such as Australia, when it hosted the Sydney Games in 2000, and the United States for around fifteen years, have “deployed significant efforts to contain their spread “.
In comparison, “we are sorely lacking in precise data on the evolution of bedbug populations”, according to Pascal Delaunay, who regrets the delay on the subject.