The French government is taking action to deal with a growing concern about bedbugs.
In Paris, a school has recently discovered a bedbug problem, and this has led to a nationwide response.
High-ranking officials from various ministries, including health, economy, and transport, are coming together at the prime minister’s office to figure out how to tackle this issue.
They are planning to speed up the creation of a national observatory on bedbugs to understand the problem better.
Their main goal is to get an accurate picture of the bedbug situation in France.
Some experts have warned that although there seems to be more bedbugs lately, not all reports are true, and we might be getting overly worried about it.
Nicolas Roux de Bézieux, who runs the website badbugs.fr, says that three out of four calls he receives about bedbugs turn out to be something else entirely.
Romain Morzaderc, a pest controller in Brittany, also shared that many times, what people think are bedbugs are actually not.
Romain Morzaderc, a pest controller in Brittany, told Ouest-France newspaper that “in 99% of cases, yes there are nasty black insects, but no, they are not bedbugs”.
The French government is concerned that this bedbug issue is getting too much attention, both in France and around the world.
They worry that it might hurt the image of Paris and affect tourism, especially with the Olympics coming up next year.
They need to strike a balance between calming the public and making them aware of the problem so it can be controlled properly.
Transport Minister Clément Beaune emphasized that out of nearly 50 reported bedbug sightings on trains, none of them were confirmed as bedbugs.
He also cautioned against negative stereotypes about France, which sometimes happen in other countries.
“I wouldn’t like to see a kind of French-bashing take hold… as it does sometimes in Anglo-Saxon countries,” he said.
“The problem needs to be taken very seriously. No denial. And no hysteria.”
In recent weeks, pest-control companies all over France have been getting more calls about bedbugs.
This is a common trend after the summer holidays, but it seems to be getting worse each year.
Bedbugs are showing up not only in homes but also in cinemas, trains, hospitals, and schools.
Social media has made people more anxious, although many videos online are not actually about bedbugs.
The most recent case was at the Elisa-Lemonnier High School in Paris, where teachers refused to work due to bedbugs in classrooms and offices.
The government is considering several measures, like controlling the cost of getting rid of bedbugs, clarifying who is responsible for paying for pest control in apartments and creating a list of trusted pest-control companies.
Some flat-owners worry about being scammed by unreliable operators, so they delay asking for help.
According to Jean-Michel Berenger, a leading expert on bedbugs in France, many pest controllers have minimal training and sometimes take advantage of situations even when they know bedbugs are not the issue.
Despite the anxiety, people are learning more about bedbugs, which is important to handle future problems.
One interesting fact is that bedbugs practice “traumatic insemination.”
Male bedbugs have a needle-like organ to inject females, and they can do it anywhere on the female’s body.
The sperm then travels through her bloodstream to her reproductive organs.
Over time, females have developed a special spot on their abdomen to encourage males to use it.
Male bedbugs also display homosexual behavior and attempt to inseminate other species.
