2y ago

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

www.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.

43 comments

- I've had bedbugs before, they got into my luggage on an extended trip. And I just have to say screw bedbugs. They're absolutely miserable little things and difficult to get rid of.
  At first it's not so bad. Just some itchy bites, nothing serious and they aren't a major disease vector. But they interfere with your sleep. And they mess with your mind after a while. Eventually it feels like they're crawling all over you whenever you're in bed, wherever your skin touches the linen, even if they aren't actually there.
  So yeah they aren't the end of the world. But I'd do a lot to avoid them.
  
  Yeah and if you had an infestation that wasn’t treated probably you wind up paranoid for years.
  Also they take the place you should feel safest and make it a place of discomfort and unease
  
  The little fuckers have given me PTSD. The toll they take on your mental health is real.
- As someone who worked as a caseworker for adults living in various residential care facilities (RCFs) and assisted living facilities (ALFs), some infestations absolutely require professional intervention....
  I've watched some facilities try to tackle them on their own with every home remedy, failing and just allowing more residents to suffer. I've hotlined facilities for their failure to manage and properly treat bed bugs.
  I'm not saying it can't be done, but I have yet to see home remedies or heat treating rooms actually solve an infestation. All I saw was one room get marginally better while another room or two had them grow in numbers.
  I luckily managed to dodge bringing them home all those years. Some of my team members weren't so lucky, and they had a hell of a time and spent thousands of dollars to eradicate them. One team member brought them to her house twice...
  I greatly feared bringing those little bastards home, and that fear was warranted.
  
  Wait, you're saying heat treating isn't effective? I thought that was the most effective method.
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- This seems like bad advice. A friend of mine literally developed panic attacks due to bed bugs. His family spent so long trying to get rid of them for good, and during that whole time none of them were getting proper sleep. Once they were gone, any hint of a bite or an itch triggered him. They can take a huge mental toll in addition to physical.
  
  Encountered bed bugs in an airbnb in Lisbon 2 years ago. It was probably a new infestation, there weren't too many and I wasn't affected cause I took all the precautions to not take them home with me, but I still have small panic attacks when I see a small red spot on me.
  They even freaking bit my scalp. They are horrible.
- Sleep tight, don't let @incendiaryperihelion@lemm.ee bite
- 16:20 timestamp - For just the effective remedies.
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.
I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit
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
- Wait until you find out where the US came from…
- 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.)
- 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
  
  I like how that article has zero data, just a couple anecdotes from French people who don't seem to like America.
  
  Source: the fr*nch
  The audacity
Public transport so good, even the insects are using it.
Do they have tickets?
The New Puce.
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.

43 comments