413

Paris is crawling with bedbugs. They're even riding the trains, and a ferry. (www.cbsnews.com)

submitted 1 year ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

54 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Just 10 months before the opening of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, the French capital is battling an invasion of bedbugs.

The tiny pests were first reported in hotels and vacation rental apartments across the city during the summer. Then there were sightings in movie theaters and, in recent days, there have even been reports of bedbugs crawling around on seats in both national high-speed trains and the Paris Metro system.

One metro train driver was dismayed to find some of the unwelcome guests in his driver's cabin.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] nouben@lemmy.ml 49 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Man with bedbugs PTSD here. Let me tell you what will happen if you notice bedbugs at your place :

You will call a company to get rid of it
They will tell you that they can't come in less than 2 weeks and that they will charge you 400€ min. Deal with your itches until then, sleep well.
The company will tell you their prerequisites, usually : get rid of ALL your fabric/clothes and wash it at 60°c or freeze it for 4 days at -20°c

I assure you that you never know how much fabric/clothes you have before you have to wash it ALL of it. My SO and i had forty 100L garbage bag of fucking stuff. The garbage bags are here for storage but also to keep your clothes and fabric sealed, to avoid the fuckers to either get away or get in. It will cost you money, you will lose time and about half your clothes thanks to the hot temp and shrinking.

If the infestation is too big, you will also have to fucking freeze your books if you have some (they can hide between pages), throw away your mattress and eventually your bed.

Also, the company will come at your place at least 2 times, best is 3, with a week interval. So during 2 to 3 weeks you will live among garbage bags, breathe insecticide for weeks, and eventually repeat the process in a few months cause one bedbug escaped and was hosted by your neighbor. Good luck to you ! (be brave)

Ps : if you have animals, you will also have to deal with them during 5h the day the company is at your place. Spoiler : that will cost you days off and about 1000€ in total.

[edit] typos, formatting and adding ps

[-] kale@lemmy.zip 24 points 1 year ago

You mention bedbug PTSD. That's not hyperbole. I think it's about 10% of bedbug infestations cause diagnosable conditions that meet clinical definitions of trauma or anxiety.

[-] nouben@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago

me, with flashbacks, shivers and feeling of swarming while writing my previous comment : not surprised.

I just thought it would be higher

[-] The_Lurk@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

I've dealt with bed bugs three times now. It's been over a year since I've had them, but if I feel something out of the ordinary on my bed the sheets get washed, the bed gets examined and for good measure I bug bomb the room.

this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2023

413 points (97.9% liked)

World News

39104 readers

1096 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.