France’s Transport Minister has insisted there is “no resurgence” of bedbugs on public transport in Paris as the country seeks to put an end to the crisis ahead of the Olympics next summer.
Clement Beaune urged people not to “fall into psychosis or anxiety” over the bloodsucking insects, saying cases are no higher than normal.
He said all recent bedbug reports on trains and other modes of Paris's public transport had been checked – and “zero” were proven.
“There … may be cases in the coming weeks or in the coming months, as there are in all major cities and major metropolis,” Mr Beaune said, insisting the phenomenon was nothing new.
More than one in 10 households in France was infested with bedbugs between 2017 and 2022, according to a report by the National Agency for Health and Food Safety, which relied on a poll by Ipsos to query people on a topic that many are said to prefer to avoid discussing because they fear being stigmatised.
Mr Beaune said protocols would be strengthened and updates provided on a quarterly basis, but he said it was important not to “fall into the idea of an acceleration or a resurgence” because that is “not the case”.
The small insects often live on furniture or bedding and can be difficult to eradicate. While their bites can be itchy, they do not usually cause other health problems.
Without any blood, “they can slow their metabolism and just wait for us”, said Jean-Michel Berenger, an entomologist who raises bedbugs in his lab in the infectious diseases section of the Mediterranee University Hospital in Marseille.
The carbon dioxide that all humans give off “will reactivate them … and they’ll come back to bite you”.
For now, Mr Berenger said panic among the public meant “bedbugs have infested the media”.
It began about a month ago after reports surfaced of bedbugs at a Paris cinema. Videos started popping up on social networks, showing the insects on trains and buses.
Now, Socialists and centrists of President Emmanuel Macron’s party want to propose bills to fight bedbugs.
Far-left politician Mathilde Panot recently brought a vial of bedbugs to parliament to chastise the government for, in her view, letting the creatures run rampant.
Bedbugs, an age-old curse on humans, had seemingly disappeared with treatment by harsh, now-banned insecticides.
They made a reappearance in the 1950s, especially in densely populated cities such as New York, and they travel the world due to commerce and tourism.
That adds up to a bedbug challenge for the Paris Olympics starting in July.
“All human population movements are profitable for bedbugs because they go with us to hotels, on transport," said Mr Berenger.
But Mr Beaune is hopeful that steps can be taken to ease the public fear.
The transport chief conceded, however: “It’s hell, these bedbugs."
