An infestation of bed bugs has hit Paris and other French cities, sparking a wave of insectophobia and now raising questions about health and safety during the upcoming 2024 Olympics.
This is how this phenomenon is described in the French, and now international, media.
That is partly true. Partly it is not.
The number of bed bugs observed has increased in the last few weeks and the trend has been increasing in recent years.
"Every late summer we see a big increase in the number of bed bugs," says Jean-Michel Berenger, an entomologist at the main hospital in Marseille and a leading French expert on bedbugs.
"This is because people travel a lot during July and August and bring them home in their luggage.
"And each year, the seasonal increase is greater than the previous one."
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In Paris, new sources of anxiety have been added to the long-standing fear of infestation felt by residents, of whom, according to the latest data, one in ten has encountered bed bugs in the last five years.
Reports that drawing pins recently seen in theaters have not been proven, but are being taken very seriously.
Likewise, the claims that people were killed on trains.
And now the Paris city government and French President Emmanuel Macron are calling for action.
It's an indication of how seriously the problem is being taken - and how much Paris' image must be protected ahead of the 2024 Olympics - and that they're not writing off the bed bug panic as a social media hoax.
Because that is also part of the story.
Scary stories are spreading across the Internet so quickly that they're turning what was once a reliable gem for print newspapers into a national emergency.
Movie theater owners, already worried about declining attendances, are seriously alarmed when videos begin to circulate showing unidentified bugs in the seats.
People on the subway started checking seats. And some prefer to stand.
"There is a new element this year, which is a general psychosis that has really taken off," says Berenge.
"In a way, this is a good thing because people have become more aware of the problem, and the sooner something is done against bed bugs, the better.
"However, much of the problem is actually exaggerated."
The fact of the matter is that bed bugs are indeed making a comeback and have been doing so for perhaps the last 20 to 30 years.
But this is not the case only in France, but everywhere.
There are several factors for this, of which globalization - container trade, tourism and immigration - is the most important.
Climate change can be turned off freely.
bed bug - cymex lectularius, according to the Latin full name - a domesticated creature.
She goes everywhere people go.
Weather conditions do not have any influence.
After World War II, bed bugs, like many other creatures, were decimated en masse by the use of DDT.
But over the years DDT and many other chemicals have been banned because of their effects on humans.
Meanwhile, the bed bug population was altered by eliminating those creatures that were generally genetically susceptible to chemical extermination.
Those who survived the DDT attack are the descendants of this present-day strain, which is therefore more resistant.
A third factor could be the decline in cockroaches, thanks to generally cleaner homes.
Cockroaches are bug hunters.
Fear not: no one is suggesting re-infesting homes with cockroaches to get rid of bed bugs!
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According to Berenze, in the developed world people tend to panic about bed bugs because we have lost our collective memory of them.
In other parts of the world, they are still common and people there are keeping the menace under control.
It is true that bed bugs are indeed a temptation, but the danger is more psychological than physical.
Cimex lectularis they may be repulsive, but as far as we know they cannot transmit any diseases.
Bed bug bites are unpleasant, but they don't last long.
They shed exoskeletons at regular intervals; they leave feces in the form of black dots (digested blood); they squirm with pleasure when they smell people; and they can last a year without food.
These are all horrors that people think about a lot.
However, the real damage is to the mental health of the possessed.
A year ago, my twenty-nine-year-old son found bed bugs in an apartment in the 20th arrondissement of Paris.
He threw out the bed, washed all the clothes, scrubbed the apartment from floor to ceiling.
But he still couldn't sleep.
He imagined them crawling all over his skin.
It became his obsession.
Only after an expensive steam treatment of his entire apartment by a reputable pest control company was he able to breathe again.
Some exterminators use sniffer dogs to find them.
"Having bed bugs is no fun at all," says Berenge.
"But there are a lot of exaggerated stories, especially about how easily they can spread from point A to point B.
"In my opinion, the best way to deal with bed bugs is to not target everyone - opt for the super-spreaders."
These are the people, he explains, who, although small in number, do the most damage.
They are often marginalized, poor, mentally ill and people with little access to social services.
When he was invited to the apartment of a super-spreader, he and his team found a truly repulsive sight - hundreds of bed bugs crawling over each other, on clothes, on wooden floors, behind framed pictures.
Eggs were also everywhere.
"Every time one of those people leaves their apartment, they're spreading those bugs. They need the most help."
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