Some think they have seen one crawling on a train seat or lurking in a cinema seat… Reports of these blood-sucking insects are increasing, with no link to the scale of the phenomenon, according to the authorities, increased tenfold by virality social networks, in the run-up to the Olympic Games.
The government particularly wants to reassure abroad, while Algeria has just announced “preventive measures” once morest the spread of these pests.
Stressing that there is “no resurgence” of bedbugs, according to Transport Minister Clément Beaune.
At the Elisa-Lemonnier high school, in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, they are very real: 14 classes were “infected”, according to a message from the director sent to teachers on Friday morning and consulted by AFP.
“Among parents and students, there is absolute psychosis. I keep receiving messages from parents who say that they will not send their child as long as there are bedbugs,” says a teacher who requested anonymity.
In total, seven educational establishments were closed in France and “a little more than fifteen, I believe 17, establishments in which we detected, at various levels, bedbugs”, declared the Minister of Education Gabriel Attal on France 5 Friday evening.
In Amiens, the Louis Aragon municipal library reopens its doors on Saturday, following several days of closure due to the presence of this insect “in its reading areas”. After treatment, a sniffer dog did not spot any bedbugs, which allowed the place to be put back into service, the city’s mayor, Brigitte Fouré, told AFP.
“It itches”
The great return of pests has taken on the dimensions of a state affair, a few months before the Paris Olympic Games. “All the ministries are at work and mobilized on this subject,” whispered a government source following an interministerial meeting in Matignon.
A tube containing bedbugs found by Nova, a 15-month-old working cocker spaniel, during training in a former military complex in Magnac-Laval in Haute-Vienne on July 16, 2019AFP/Archives / GEORGES GOBET.
All this is not a “psychosis”, sweeps away Marie-Christine Gesta, retiree, who speaks from “experience”, at 72 years old, the last of whom fought the bedbugs that she discovered during a stay at the hotel. “It ruined my life,” explains to AFP the one who “checks everywhere”, now, including in her shopping bag.
Mrs. Gesta had recently gotten rid of these insects. Seeing them resurface therefore “awakened bad memories”. “It already makes me itchy just thinking regarding it,” laments the woman who lives near Vannes.
A fear that spreads. The furniture believed to be infested is now placed in bulky waste and tagged “Bedbugs”, as in a photo of a sofa, mattress and other ironing board posted on X (formerly Twitter) by internet user @masfargay.
“There are mattresses lined up in my street with small posters asking not to touch them. We are afraid of ‘the flea’,” American author Alfredo Mineo, who lives in Paris, even told the Guardian.
“Post-traumatic stress”
“There is a small effect of collective panic, or even people who do not have bedbugs worry regarding having them, sometimes with a slightly obsessive side”, analyzes psychiatrist Antoine Pelissolo, from CHU Henri -Mondor, in Créteil.
Those who have had them experience “almost a post-traumatic stress syndrome”, observes Marie Effroy, director of the screening company Eco-Flair, also president of the National Institute for the Study and Control of Bed Bugs ( Inelp).
The people affected are so marked by the experience that Eco-Flair had to train its employees in “customer stress management”, she continues.
These requests for disinfection are exploding. Among individuals, but also in public transport, who want to show their credentials. The Montpellier public transport network, the TAM, for example, released photos on Friday of a “detection operation”, featuring an agent accompanied by a sniffer dog.
Before the 2024 Olympics, Clément Beaune had also promised, it will be necessary to go through a “major spring cleaning”.
Some Internet users almost regret it. So “mr_xcelo” on Instagram, who these days appreciates the number of “seated places” in the RER A.
