France launches bed bug campaign with emergency hotline
Parisian home and business owners have seen a huge increase in the tiny invaders and it's costing them thousands.
Friday 21 February 2020 10:35, UK
The French government has launched a campaign to combat an infestation of bed bugs at homes and hotels in Paris.
After disappearing from France in the 1950s, the insects have made a resurgence, according to the ministry of housing, which cited international travel and growing resistance to insecticide as the main causes.
"We can all be affected," the government warned on a webpage dedicated to the parasitic problem, complete with advice on how to prevent and treat an infestation, and a number to call for expert help.
In Paris, extermination experts say 400,000 addresses including hotels, apartments and houses were treated in 2018, the latest year for which information is available.
This represented a third more than the previous year.
The common bed bug, cimex lectularius, is found in temperate climates in the United States and parts of Europe.
They hide in linen by day and come out at night to bite people, often while they are sleeping, leaving red, itchy welts. They do not transmit disease.
Exterminating the tiny invaders costs homeowners and businesses thousands of pounds, with some hotels even being forced to close.
The six-legged pest, called "punaises de lit" in French, were just a small nuisance after World War II because of the widespread use of insecticides such as DDT. But the banning of such potent poisons, because they were too dangerous, hailed a bed bug revival.
By the late 1990s, the critters were thriving in New York and a 2010 outbreak saw them invade high-end apartment buildings, hotels and even clothing stores like lingerie chain Victoria's Secret.
Bed bugs have even featured in the Paris 2020 electoral campaign, with former mayoral hopeful Benjamin Griveaux promising to clean up the capital in 100 days.
The plan of the candidate, who has since bowed out over a sex-tape scandal, included specialised anti-pest "brigades" targeting bed bugs, rats and cockroaches, which would intervene free of charge for low-income households, and at the lowest market price for others.