Paris is crawling with bedbugs. They're even riding the trains, and a ferry.

MicroWave@lemmy.world to World News@lemmy.world – 407 points – Paris is crawling with bedbugs. They're even riding the trains, and a ferry.
cbsnews.com

Just 10 months before the opening of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, the French capital is battling an invasion of bedbugs.

The tiny pests were first reported in hotels and vacation rental apartments across the city during the summer. Then there were sightings in movie theaters and, in recent days, there have even been reports of bedbugs crawling around on seats in both national high-speed trains and the Paris Metro system.

One metro train driver was dismayed to find some of the unwelcome guests in his driver's cabin.

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Man with bedbugs PTSD here. Let me tell you what will happen if you notice bedbugs at your place :

  • You will call a company to get rid of it

  • They will tell you that they can't come in less than 2 weeks and that they will charge you 400€ min. Deal with your itches until then, sleep well.

  • The company will tell you their prerequisites, usually : get rid of ALL your fabric/clothes and wash it at 60°c or freeze it for 4 days at -20°c

I assure you that you never know how much fabric/clothes you have before you have to wash it ALL of it. My SO and i had forty 100L garbage bag of fucking stuff. The garbage bags are here for storage but also to keep your clothes and fabric sealed, to avoid the fuckers to either get away or get in. It will cost you money, you will lose time and about half your clothes thanks to the hot temp and shrinking.

If the infestation is too big, you will also have to fucking freeze your books if you have some (they can hide between pages), throw away your mattress and eventually your bed.

Also, the company will come at your place at least 2 times, best is 3, with a week interval. So during 2 to 3 weeks you will live among garbage bags, breathe insecticide for weeks, and eventually repeat the process in a few months cause one bedbug escaped and was hosted by your neighbor. Good luck to you ! (be brave)

Ps : if you have animals, you will also have to deal with them during 5h the day the company is at your place. Spoiler : that will cost you days off and about 1000€ in total.

[edit] typos, formatting and adding ps

You mention bedbug PTSD. That's not hyperbole. I think it's about 10% of bedbug infestations cause diagnosable conditions that meet clinical definitions of trauma or anxiety.

me, with flashbacks, shivers and feeling of swarming while writing my previous comment : not surprised.

I just thought it would be higher

I've dealt with bed bugs three times now. It's been over a year since I've had them, but if I feel something out of the ordinary on my bed the sheets get washed, the bed gets examined and for good measure I bug bomb the room.

So after charging outrageous prices and general rudeness to people who happen not to speak Fench (while still bringing in loads of money), they now try bed bugs as a tourist repellent strategy. Maybe it works this time.

Outrageous, these french people speaking French. How dare they not bow to their English speaking money bringers!

Outrageous, these foreigners not speaking French. How dare they expect basic human respect after thinking they can pay their way out of dedicating mere months of their time to learning the most important language on earth!

Public transport so good, even the insects are using it.

Having lived through a bedbugs pandemic, this shit is more serious than COVID. It's impossible to get rid of them except burning all your possessions and changing apartments. As someone who reside a train ride away from Paris, I demand border control now.

On behalf of Europe, I'd like to thank the US for this gift.

Hate to burst your bubble but per the Center for Invasive Species "they are thought to have originated in Europe, the Middle East or in India, but moved across the world as humans did."

But … but the US makes such a good scapegoat!

The paper adds that DisneyLand Paris is regularly infested with bedbugs, noting that the tourist hotspot is hugely popular with... you guessed it, Americans.

https://www.thelocal.fr/20170413/are-american-tourists-behind-the-bed-bug-explosion-in-paris

I'd like to know why the fuck Americans are traveling to Paris to go to Disneyland. We have two perfectly good Disney theme parks in the US. Why not go to France and enjoy French things??

Edit: OP is an idiot. Another commenter determined that less than 10% of visitors to Disneyland France are American.

A) Your source is behind a paywall, so I can't read it.

B) So Disney Land Paris is ONLY popular with Americans? Because if you honestly think that the reason Disney Land gets bedbugs is because Americans visit it, you might be a moron. Just because it is popular with Americans doesn't mean that no other countries visit it.

In fact, let's look at the numbers: in 2016, 49% of visitors to DL Paris were from France, 17% from the UK, 9% from Spain, and going down through Europe. The rest of the world (U.S. included) is only 9% of the visitors. In 2011, the numbers were 51% France, 12% UK, 9% Spain, and going down through Europe, with the rest of the world (US included) being 9%. I can't find any newer numbers than 2016, but if the percentages are almost identical from 2011 to 2016, then I'm guessing they are similar for 2023. So the entire premise of your argument that DL Paris gets bedbugs because of less than 10% of its tourists is so unbelievably stupid that I don't even know where to go from here.

It doesn't matter where the bedbugs came from, they are everywhere. Paris is an international destination; this is entirely Paris's failure to manage it a problem that comes inevitably with that status.

Wait, why?

He thinks bed bugs originated in the new world. (They've been present in Europe for 900+ years.)

If you want to blame the Americas for anything, blame syphilis. That wasn't in Europe until the late 1400/early 1500.

You can downvote me all you want, but the French think the same: https://www.thelocal.fr/20170413/are-american-tourists-behind-the-bed-bug-explosion-in-paris

it just looks like you're here spreading a lie, that's all

I like how that article has zero data, just a couple anecdotes from French people who don't seem to like America.

French people who don’t seem to like America.

So basically all of them?