While water quality in Paris is already a concern for next year’s Olympics – the Olympic Test Event recently turned some of the triathlons into duathlons – France’s capital city now has another major problem on its hands: the encroaching bed bug. The insect, very difficult to control or exterminate and a cause of intense itching, is gaining tremendous ground in the metropolis.
Bed bugs are currently found everywhere in Paris: from homes to cinemas, from hospitals to schools, from public transport to stores. The problem is currently getting so big that Paris has even enlisted the help of the national government to solve the problem.
Bed bugs typically live in and around beds, usually hiding in the seams of a mattress. There they feed on the blood of people and animals. People do not get sick from bed bug bites, but get small, itchy bumps that disappear over time. Many videos are being published on social media showing the bed bug in all kind of locations in Paris.
Deputy Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire has therefore written a letter to French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne: in it, he states that bed bugs are a public health problem and therefore the insects should be treated as such. In addition, the mayor stresses that the Olympics are coming up and therefore everything must be done to find a solution.
