Is Britain at risk of its own bed bug plague? Freakish outbreak ravaging Paris sparks crisis meetings after official warns ‘no-one is safe’

Britain may be hit by its own bed bug plague similar to the crisis ravaging France, experts have suggested.

The tiny blood-suckers have been caught crawling on train seats and inside Paris’ bustling Charles-de-Gaulle Airport in recent weeks. 

Travellers have even complained about infestations of the annoying, 5mm critters inside Airbnbs, hotels, cinemas and restaurants.

Paris’s deputy mayor has claimed ‘no-one is safe’ and demanded urgent action to tackle the ‘scourge’ of bed bugs ahead of the 2024 Olympics.

Experts warned the UK could naturally see its own uptick, claiming outbreaks have been on the rise for years as the insects become resistant to killer chemicals. 

Pest control firms also the problem in France could be transported abroad because the insects could hitch a ride in Brits’ luggage ‘without a shadow of a doubt’. 

In France, concerns over the crisis have led to French officials holding crisis talks about the increase in bed bugs, with ministers in Emmanuel Macron’s government promising to ‘rapidly bring answers’ for the public.

Although they get their name from their habit of nesting in your mattress, bed bugs, about the size of an apple seed, can also live in sofas, carpets and furniture.

They hide in small cracks and crevices as narrow as a credit card and mainly feed at night. They can make their way into clothing and luggage among travellers staying in infested hotels or using bug-riddled planes, trains and buses.

While the bugs don’t carry any diseases that could sicken humans and their bite is painless, it leaves behind an itchy red mark on areas that are exposed while sleeping.

Rob Smith, emeritus professor with a speciality in entomology at the University of Huddersfield, warned that cases could take off in the UK.

He told MailOnline: ‘Reports of bedbugs have been increasing for many years, both in the UK and many other countries, probably in the main because of their developing resistance to insecticides.’

Two classes of insecticides are commonly used to thwart infestations — pyrethroids and neonicotinoids — but pest companies warn the bugs are building up a tolerance to them. 

Bugs with genetic mutations that enable them to survive exposure to these chemicals can reproduce and pass the mutation on to its offspring. As these bugs continue to breed, an army of insects resistant to current chemicals is left behind, experts say. 

As well as Britain facing its own bed bug crisis, there are rising fears that France’s outbreak could trigger a spike in UK cases.

Experts confirmed the critters could easily survive the two hour, 16 minute journey via Eurostar from Paris to London. 

David Cain, founder and MD of Bed Bugs LTD and a qualified microbiologist, told the Independent they could be arriving from Paris ‘without a shadow of a doubt’. 

‘I have known people go on daytrips to Paris not even staying in hotels or other high-risk activities and come back with them. Paris has been a popular link for the last six years,’ he said.

Eurostar told MailOnline it plans to increase ‘preventative treatments’ across their entire network but cautioned that cases of bedbugs on its trains was ‘extremely rare’. 

Pest killers Rentokil this summer reported a 65 per cent year-on-year increase in bed bug infestations in the UK.

It blamed the resurgence in travel and hotel stays since the pandemic. 

At the time, experts also suggested it could be due to more people buying second-hand furniture from resale websites such as eBay and Facebook marketplace. 

To avoid picking up bed bugs, Smith recommended not putting belongings in hotel drawers, as this can see the bugs spread to clothing, luggage and eventually infest people’s homes back in the UK.

He said: ‘I would advise avoiding unpacking clothes as far as possible in hotels.’

Clive Boase, of the pest management consultancy, the Bed Bug Foundation Senate, told MailOnline: ‘Most bedbugs live in crevices on or close to the bed. It is rare for them to actually live on clothing, or on a person.

‘Over time, they may crawl from one room (in a hotel or care-home or whatever) to adjoining rooms. 

‘Occasionally they might enter someone’s luggage, and so could be transported to another place.’

He added: ‘All cities, including those in the UK, will have bed bug infestations to a greater or lesser extent.’ 

However, he noted, ‘there are no data to indicate whether there are more or less bed bugs in Paris or London’. 

The National Institute for the Study and Control of Bedbugs (INELP) in France warned the situation in the country this year is ‘beyond all other years’. 

It also warned that the bugs are becoming more difficult to eradicate, having become resistant to insecticides. 

French entomologists say bed bug sightings have been on the up over the past few years.

Jean-Michel Berenger, of Marseille’s main hospital and France’s leading expert, told the BBC: ‘Every late summer we see a big increase in bed bugs.

‘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.’

‘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.’

It comes after French television presenter Pascal Praud caused fury after suggesting immigrants were responsible for the country’s recent invasion of bedbugs.

The CNews — a right-wing news channel — presenter, suggested there may be a link between the bedbugs and the arrival of immigrants to the country who ‘do not have the same hygiene conditions’ as those ‘on French soil’. 

He is being investigated by Arcom, the television watchdog, after asking Nicolas Roux de Bezieux, the founder of Badbugs, a pest control firm: ‘There is a lot of immigration at the moment. 

‘Is it people who don’t have the same hygiene conditions as those [living] in France who bring [bedbugs] because they are in the street, perhaps because they don’t have access to [public services]?’

The appearance of the insects is unrelated to hygiene levels, according to the French authorities. 

Bed bugs have in recent weeks gone from being a subject of potential derision to a contentious political issue in France.

Some experts have suggested increased globalisation, tourism and the increase in shipping container movement are among factors causing greater numbers of bedbugs. 

But Mr Rousseau also dismissed the idea that the rise in bedbugs is related to immigration. 

‘It’s got nothing to do with immigration, it’s related to movement, when you come back from abroad you might bring bedbugs back with you,’ he told radio station French Inter.

The concerns have gained added weight, with France in the throes of hosting the Rugby World Cup and Paris preparing to welcome thousands of athletes and fans from around the world for the 2024 Olympics.

Transport minister Clement Beaune will today host a crisis meeting to ‘quantify the situation and strengthen the measures’. 

Another will be held on Friday.  

Deputy mayor of Paris Emmanuel Gregoire labelled the infestation ‘widespread’, speaking to French TV station LCI on Friday. 

In a letter on behalf of City Hall, he called on Prime Minister Elizabeth Borne to act on the ‘scourge’. 

He wrote: ‘Bed bugs are a public health problem and should be reported as such. 

‘The state must urgently bring together all concerned in order to enact an action plan appropriate to this scourge as all of France prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2024.’

In one video posted to TikTok in July, seen 3.7million times, influencer @wanderlustfulrosie captured footage of what appears to be bed bugs on a hotel pillow case. 

‘BE CAREFUL IN PARIS!!!! There is a bed bug infestation problem!!’, she wrote. 

In another video posted on the platform yesterday, @jimmytravelsworld showed him pick out bedbugs using tweezers from his bed and under the mattress.

‘When you go to Paris to find love but end up finding bugs living rent free in your bed’, he said.

In the video watched more than 44,000 times, he also shared bite marks of his wrists after living in the infected property. 

‘I rented a one month Airbnb in Paris and discovered bed bugs in the bedroom,’ he captioned the video. 

‘I ended up having to pay extra money to Airbnb to move out because they would only refund the stay plus a partial coupon but all the remaining available Airbnbs were much more expensive.’

But in an interview with France Inter on Tuesday, health minister Aurélien Rousseau said there is ‘no reason for a general panic’ and that France has not been ‘invaded by bed bugs’. 

France’s national health agency recommends people check their hotel beds when travelling and be cautious about bringing second-hand furniture or pre-owned mattresses into their homes. 

Once bed bugs are sighted in a home, affected rooms must be treated quickly, it said.

But despite photos of critters on public transport, shared on social media, not all the reports have been proven.  

Public transport operator RATP, which runs Paris’s subway, trams and buses said it had investigated but ‘no cases have been confirmed to date’.

Early in September, cinema chain UGC released a statement saying it was deploying dogs to detect bed bugs after ‘questions’ from customers at its Bercy theatre.