A council said it had received an “alarming number” of calls to tackle bedbugs amid fears that outbreaks in Paris could spread to the UK.
Which is ridiculous. Bed bugs are always a problem in large cities, and London really isn’t an exception.
It’s unlikely that the outbreak has significantly ‘spread’ from Paris. People are just more likely to notice they have an infestation.
It’s Luton. And the council has had phone calls about fears they could spread from Paris
It’s a non news story
I find it interesting though.
Firstly, because it’s an example of a common phenomenon in media. One newsworthy thing happens, suddenly the media report any story that’s similar to it, leading naive readers/watchers to think that incidence of the thing being reported has increased. Particularly relevant to crime figures, where people vastly overestimate how often some crimes are committed, due to media coverage.
Secondly, because it’s not that much different to ‘Spanish’ Flu or the ‘French’ Disease. Shows how xenophobia, racism, disgust and a fear of disease are all connected and still quite common place. Bigotry isn’t so much connected to fear as it is to disgust at the different. Seems to be almost instinctual/evolutionary. That person’s different/foreign, might be carrying a disease, eww.
Great
These assholes will hitch rides on your clothing and in your pockets. So be mindful if anyone you know says they might have them. Don’t sit on their furniture, and don’t let them sit on yours.
If you already have them at home, I can only wish you the best of luck. The next six months to year of your life will be living out of plastic bags.
It’s mainly a problem if you live in shared housing or an appartment block with shitty neighbours.
Experts + coordinated efforts and it’s quite easy to solve. Heat, steam, pesticides, diatomaceous earth(especially around chair/bed legs), regular vacuuming, regular tumble drying, matras covers, and plastic bin bags left in the sun.
People exagerate how difficult it is. If it was as difficult as some people say, hotels would no longer exist. Every hotel has problems with bed bugs on occasion.
When you travel, have the contents of your suitcase in a plastic bin bag. Avoid hotels with carpeting. Bed bugs hate tile floors, really hard to move across them. Also, if you have tiles at home, you can simply use bleach to mop the floor. The fumes alone already kill plenty of the buggers.
I see you’ve never had them.
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Some decent advice right here. In many years of regular hotel stays, I have had exactly two encounters with them. There was no issue with cross-infestation. They don’t travel that easily, as you say.
What gets me is that prevention is so easy-peasy, in theory:
- no carpets
- foam or other cavity-free mattress
- impervious mattress cover
Done. And yet hotels still have these monstrous sprung mattresses, which accumulate dust and mites and are basically black boxes for infestation of all kinds. Usually protected by a single layer of dirty synthetic fiber. Yuck.
The whole carpet thing also annoys the fuck out of me.
I mean, it was fashionable once upon a time.
But now? It stains easily, harbours bugs and mites, and is ridiculously labour intensive to clean. Tile, high quality vinyl or laminate please.
Just adopt your bedbugs today and get used to them. /s
Time for pesticides.
The buggers are more and more resistant though.
I never had bedbugs or even seen them but when i traveled through Australia, people were terrified if you just mentioned bedbugs. A guy i met gave me his bedbug spray when he left. I read on it that the spray doesn’t poison them, it had micropic glas shards or something in it that would just cut them into pieces. I found that pretty metal
Fire. And/Or chlorine gas.
Diatomaceous earth.
