“It’s a real source of concern”: London gripped by bedbug psychosis

These little insects the size of an apple seed have not finished making people talk about them. After France in recent days, concern over bedbugs is now spreading to London, according to its mayor Sadiq Khan, who took care to recall this week the cleaning measures implemented in the British capital's transport after the broadcast last weekend of TikTok videos showing what could be a bedbug on public transport in London and Manchester.

Despite recent comments from the French Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune, assuring that there is “no resurgence” in France, reports are increasing in the country, and fears now go beyond the borders of France. “It’s a real cause for concern. People are worried that these bedbugs in Paris will be a problem in London,” the Labor mayor of the British capital told the PoliticsJoe website.

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With London transport operator TfL (Transports for London), “we are taking steps to ensure that we do not have these problems in London, in relation to the regular cleaning of the Tube (the underground) and our buses ", he added. “TfL has one of the best regimes for cleaning our equipment at night,” he wanted to reassure, and “we are talking with our Parisian friends to see if we can learn lessons.” “For a number of reasons, we don't think this problem will arise in London,” he added, while dismissing any overconfidence on the part of TfL.

He also indicated that he had raised the subject with Eurostar which, according to a recent press release from the cross-Channel railway company, had launched a “preventive detection campaign” and assured that it had not observed an increase in bedbugs on board its trains. The increase in the phenomenon does not seem to spare the United Kingdom: according to figures from the specialist company Rentokil, cited by the Institute of Environmental Health, infestations increased by 65% ​​in the second quarter of 2023 compared to the year former.

Disappeared from daily life in the 1950s, these insects which feed on human blood have made a comeback over the past thirty years in developed countries thanks to a more nomadic lifestyle, consumption promoting second-hand purchases and increasing resistance to insecticides.