On everyone’s lips (yuck) these days, are bed bugs itching more than they should? If the Minister of Health estimated on Tuesday that there was “no general panic” about these real pests, concern about their possible presence on a (very) large scale is a reality. Including in transport after detections in the Paris metro, on board TGV or even in the waiting area of Roissy airport. In Nice, although “there have been no reports”, as confirmed by a spokesperson for the Nice Côte d’Azur metropolis, the community nevertheless invites the press “to attend the first disinfection of a train tram”, this Wednesday evening.
“While the proliferation of these pests is increasing and the challenge for the people of Nice is to use our public transport with complete peace of mind, Christian Estrosi announced the implementation of prior and preventive disinfection in transport,” writes the metropolis in a press release. “It’s really a prevention operation,” specifies the spokesperson.
“No active support measures”
An operation which perplexes the opposition. “That there be an inspection, yes. A treatment, I don’t know,” reacts municipal and metropolitan councilor (EELV) Juliette Chesnel-Le Roux. The elected official is surprised, however, that if “the municipal council had voted for active aid in the fight against these infestations for homes”, “to date, there are only explanatory flyers”, says -She.
The city and the metropolis, for their part, assure that they launched a plan two years ago, with financial aid of 175 euros to finance the costs of disinfestation. In 2021, the public hygiene department of the city of Nice indicated that it had dealt with 68 infestations, compared to only around twenty in 2019.