A plague of bedbugs has hit Paris and other French cities, provoking a wave of insectophobia and raising questions about health and safety during next year’s Olympic Games.
That’s broadly how the phenomenon has been described in the French – and now international – news media.
In part it is true. But in another part it isn’t.
What is the case is that the number of bedbug sightings has increased over the last weeks – and that that upward trend goes back several years.
“Every late summer we see a big increase in bedbugs,” says Jean-Michel Berenger, an entomologist at Marseille’s main hospital and France’s leading expert on les punaises.
“That is because people have been moving about over July and August, and they bring them back in their luggage.
“And each year, the seasonal increase is bigger than the last one.”