Don’t let the bedbugs bite, goes the frequently repeated admonition.
But with the Paris Olympics less than a year away, there are now calls for action due to worries that the blood-sucking insects would bite individuals attending the Olympic Games in the summer of 2016.
Social media users have posted videos of the critters crawling around on fast trains and on the Paris Metro, and many people have reported seeing them in theaters and even at Charles de Gaulle Airport. Additionally, bedbug-related articles have started to frequently appear online.
Transport Minister Clemente Beaune announced on Friday that he would speak with transport operators about the matter next week after the claims reached the highest levels of government.
On X, formerly known as Twitter, Beaune pledged to “reassure and protect” users of public transportation networks, saying that operators will “act more to serve customers.”
A day earlier, Deputy Mayor of Paris Emmanuel Grégoire had written a letter to Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne on behalf of the French capital’s City Hall urging her to address the “scourge.”
According to Reuters, Grégoire stated that the state urgently has to implement an action plan to combat this plague as France gets ready to host the Olympic and Paralympic games in 2024.
In a different post on X Thursday, he declared that “no one is safe,” and he urged local communities to take “coordinated measures” to stop the spread of the bugs, which hide in clothing, bedding, and other items of furniture and feast on blood, typically at night. Because females can produce up to seven eggs every day, infestations can grow quickly.
According to an ANSES research published in July, “more than one in 10 French households were infested by bedbugs” between 2017 and 2022. ANSES is the government organization in charge of evaluating the health hazards associated with food, the environment, and workplaces.
According to the French government, bites can cause rashes, allergic reactions, and blisters. The government suggests that people wash their clothes and bedding at high temperatures, clean their furniture and carpets, and call pest control services if the problem persists.
Although household income has little effect on the chance of an infestation, it does affect how persistent it is. According to ANSES, residential extermination services cost about 866 euros ($917) on average.
In a different tweet, Deputy Mayor Grégoire stated that the city was assisting lower-income households with covering the expense of eradication and urged home insurance providers to do the same.
“Private companies are contracted to deal with bedbugs, and they are free to set their own prices,” explained Sophie Marie Niang, a sociology doctoral student who divides her time between Paris and Cambridge, England.
According to her, infestations were made worse for those who couldn’t afford the exorbitant costs associated with the rising demand for fumigation.
She claimed that since 2019, members of the National Assembly who represent poorer neighborhoods on the outskirts of Paris have been pushing for state restrictions on extermination pricing, but they have been disregarded.
She continued by saying that visitors staying in short-term rentals with lax cleaning and sanitary standards were more likely to have brought the problem to light by unintentionally transporting the insects through more affluent areas of central Paris, creating a fresh crisis for the city prior to preparations for the Summer Olympics in 2024.
According to her, the infestation has added to the city’s perception that “everything is going wrong” in the run-up to the Games.
In reference to the widespread disturbances in June following the police assassination of Nahel Marzouk, a 17-year-old of North African heritage, she said, “People torched Olympic worksites in protest throughout the riots and Paris is swarming with bedbugs.”
It is not promising.