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You should always take precautions, but don’t panic about the Paris situation, an expert says.
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There appear to be bedbugs all over Paris. There are also dozens of flights weekly between the Trudeau and Charles de Gaulle airports.
Is it time to panic?
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You don’t have to worry more than usual, according to an entomologist with Orkin Canada Pest & Wildlife Control Services. It’s always advisable to take precautions against bedbugs while travelling and, if travellers and airlines are vigilant, there’s no reason to think the issue will cross the Atlantic.
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In recent weeks, there have been reports of bedbug sightings in places like theatres, public transit and the airport in Paris, sparking concern amid Fashion Week and ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics. Paris officials say it’s important to understand bedbugs can be found anywhere, not just in Paris, but admitted they did find “weakness in terms of prevention and treatment” in their existing plans to deal with the issue and that exterminators have reported an increase in requests recently.
“Faced with a bedbug infestation, co-ordinated measures are needed that bring together health authorities, communities and all relevant stakeholders to prevent the risk and act effectively,” Emmanuel Grégoire, deputy mayor of Paris, recently wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
According to official data, more than one in 10 households in Paris dealt with bedbugs between 2017 and 2022.
“If you have that kind of percentage of households infested, they’re going to bring it into the public because these are people who are going to the movie theatre, these are people who are using the transit system, these are people who are going to the hospitals, these are kids who are going to school,” said Dr. Alice Sinia, entomologist and quality assurance manager at Orkin Canada.
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It is possible for bedbugs to latch on to travellers, especially if the bugs are in hotels. That’s why experts like Sinia as well as the Public Health Agency of Canada recommend several precautionary measures when travelling anywhere, such as: inspecting your body after sitting at an airport; using pale plastic suitcases instead of dark fabric ones; placing suitcases on luggage racks or in the bathtub instead of the bed or floor in hotel rooms; inspecting those hotel rooms — particularly the beds — upon arrival; and washing or drying clothes at the highest temperature immediately upon returning home.
“It’s very important to self-educate,” Sinia said. “Once people are educated, they know what to look for, what are the signs. Then they’re very vigilant. Then they’ll do inspections wherever they are. They’re very conscious about their environment, and if they’re very conscious about their environment, that means the chances of bringing bedbugs back to their home is almost zero.”
Mature bedbugs are flat, oval shaped, about the size of an apple seed, and have two antennae and six legs. They’re a reddish brown colour. They come out at night and often hide in places that are tough to see, like baseboards, bed frames, loose wallpaper and sofas, which is part of the reason infestations are hard to address.
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“The treatment has to be very, very effective and sometimes not everyone knows how to do it right, so it’s very easy to miss some spots,” Sinia said. “That means they come back.”
The biggest concern, Sinia said, is that bedbugs have developed resistance to many pesticides.
“Because of that, even if you treat them, the pesticide doesn’t kill them, so they tend to amplify that resistance and that resistant population becomes bigger, then it’s very hard to control them,” she said.
Sinia added she suspects that in response to the situation in Paris, airlines flying out of the city are checking their planes for bedbugs upon arrival at their destinations, through either canine or visual inspections.
“That is the first thing to do, because that way we’ll know right away if the bedbugs are being brought over,” she said. “So if everything is detected, then it will be treated right away before it moves over to an airport here.”
Air Canada, which flies between Trudeau airport and Charles de Gaulle, did not respond when asked if any extra precautions are being taken for those flights.
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Bernard Côté, a spokesperson for Air Transat, which also flies between the two cities, said “all of our aircraft flying overseas undergo extensive overnight cleaning, which provides thorough cabin cleaning and disinfection of heavy traffic areas.”
When asked about precautions at Trudeau airport, spokesperson Eric Forest said “in the event of any outbreak, (extra) protocols would first have to be defined and imposed by government authorities to all Canadian airports.”
“Bedbugs are unfortunately present in most countries and large cities in the world,” Forest added. “Montreal is no exception. That said, a well-informed and cautious traveller will be able to take the appropriate measures to limit his risk.”
In 2022, Montreal came in 12th place on Orkin Canada’s top 25 bedbug cities, up from 17th place in 2021. The company ranks cities based on both residential and commercial treatments performed that year. In 2022, Toronto and Vancouver took 1st and 2nd place.
The city of Montreal did not respond when asked if it is concerned about the bedbug situation in Paris.
For more information about precautions to take against bedbugs while travelling, visit Health Canada’s website.
kthomas@postmedia.com
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