The media alarm began a little over a month ago, when several users saw them swarming around the cinema seats, recorded videos and posted them on social networks. Then it was on public transport, on the Paris metro and on some high-speed trains managed by the SNCF company. In the last few days there have been two schools. The proliferation of bedbug-like parasites in public spaces in a few weeks has unleashed psychosis, especially in the French capital.
The alarm has reached the political sphere. The mayor of Paris has asked the Government for help to eradicate them and the representative of La Francia Insumisa, Mathilde Panot, says she has sometimes denounced this problem: “Almost all the deputies have made fun of me”.
It is not the first time that the French capital has experienced a wave of these bugs that are associated with the movement of people, they adhere especially to fabrics (clothes, upholstery, suitcases) and from there they go from one place to another, sometimes without the user noticing. During the day, they hide in mattresses and bed bases, feeding on human blood. They vampirize at night. The affected person realizes the problem when they see the wounds on the skin.
This problem has affected one in 10 homes in France in recent years, according to the national health security agency (Anses, in its French acronym). A few weeks ago, several users posted videos on social media in which tiny bugs were seen in the seats of movie theaters. The affected chain (UGC) reacted quickly, ensuring that they take disinfection measures in their rooms.
“We take the bed bug problem very seriously and have invested massively since 2017,” the group said in a statement. Barely a week later, the alarm spread to transportation. SNCF, the company responsible for the network, also says it does not suffer from this problem on its lines, despite complaints from passengers. Some have posted images on social networks such as X (formerly Twitter) in which bugs are seen running around the seats of the carriage.