Only a few millimeters long, bedbugs are however taking up more and more space in the public debate. While many political leaders have described their presence as a “scourge”, the Minister of Health wanted to be reassuring. Aurélien Rousseau considered on Tuesday that there was “no general panic” to be had in the face of bedbugs.
The presence of pests has been reported in several places where the public gathers. “I think that this is not a reason for general panic,” assured the minister interviewed on France Inter, recognizing however that “when you have bedbugs, it’s hell.” The presence of bedbugs has been reported in recent weeks in cinemas, TGV trains, the Paris metro and the waiting area at Roissy airport. But not all of these cases are proven.
Limit prices
“What concerns me is that people do not get cheated with boxes that make them pay 2,000 or 3,000 euros” to rid them of these bedbugs, said Aurélien Rousseau who denounced “abuses”. The Minister of Health hopes that the government can work “to limit these prices” and recalls the existence of 450 to 480 “approved professionals”.
He further recalled that the presence of bedbugs had “nothing to do with immigration”. A reference to a question deemed “racist” by LFI and Renaissance deputies from journalist Pascal Praud recently asking on CNews if the resurgence of bedbugs could be linked to migrants.
Small beasts, big damage
Disappeared from daily life in the 1950s, these insects have made a comeback over the past thirty years in many developed countries thanks to increasingly nomadic lifestyles and consumption favoring second-hand purchases. and increasing resistance to insecticides.
The size of an apple seed, they feed at night, mainly on human blood, most often hide in mattresses or box springs and are transported in clothing and luggage. To eliminate them, careful cleaning of the infested area is essential and the use of a specialized pest control service is often necessary.