🇫🇷 The Know Daily - Wednesday 4 October 2023

_{Read in 5m 33s ∙ Listening to Mae Muller}

Some dam good news for your Wednesday - a baby beaver has been photographed in London for the first time in 400 years. The sighting came 18 months after Enfield council began a reintroduction programme as part of a wider rewilding and natural flood-management project - and “beaver safaris” could soon be on the cards.

🇫🇷 Paris’ bedbug outbreak

Reports suggest that a plague of bedbugs is taking over Paris’ public spaces, with the pests spotted in hotels, cinemas, restaurants, on public transport and at Charles-de-Gaulle Airport.

What’s the story?
Over the past few days, international and UK media outlets have reported on a concerning surge in bedbug infestations across the French capital. “Paris has become the city of love, rats and bugs,” wrote Gavin Mortimer in The Spectator. “The best tips out of Paris Fashion week? Avoiding bedbugs,” said Jessica Roy in The New York Times.

Videos shared on social media have shown the creatures crawling over seats of the Paris Metro and national high-speed trains, while Parisians have posted warnings “about the creepy critters swarming all over their Airbnb rentals”, said The Independent.

Why is this happening?
This outbreak is part of a wider trend of infestations being on the rise in France, with more than one in 10 French households impacted by bed bugs between 2017 and 2022. According to CBS News, experts believe that a “greater resistance to insecticides” could be behind their comeback, along with “an increase in tourism”. Another reason is that fewer cockroaches - one of bed bugs’ main predators - are now found in homes.

But, as Forbes pointed out, this rise is not specific to France. “For the past few decades, bed bugs have managed to increasingly pervade countries around the world and in greater numbers, because of increased globalisation,” wrote journalist Alex Ledsom.

What are officials doing?
The French government has launched a concerted effort to fight bedbugs, with the pressure firmly on given the timing of the Olympic and Paralympic games in Paris next summer. Reports suggest that the Eurostar has also stepped up cleaning efforts “to keep the critters on the other side of the Channel”.

Should I be worried?
France’s health minister has “reassured citizens that there is “no reason for a general panic” and that the country has not been “invaded by bedbugs”, said Politico.

While bedbugs are pretty unpleasant, they’re unlikely to cause any real harm to your health. It’s also not unusual for outbreaks to be reported at this time of year, post summer holidays, when people have been travelling around more.

“Scare stories… flashing across the internet” have compounded the issue, wrote Paris-based BBC correspondent Hugh Schofield. “The truth is that bedbugs are indeed a menace, but the danger is more psychological than physical”.

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