France forced to close schools as bedbug infestations 'piling up' in outbreak
France has been forced to close seven schools over concerns that bedbug infestations are "piling up", the Education Minister has said.
Gabriel Attal said an "immediate response" is needed so that institutions can be treated within 24 hours and children can return to class. In an interview with France 5 television, the minister said bedbugs were detected "at various levels" in 17 institutions, and seven schools are currently closed due to the issue.
Mr Attal said while there are over 60,000 schools in France and only a few dozen are currently affected, cases are "piling up". He added a list of "approved and recognised" companies has been prepared in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and regional health agencies "so that the heads of schools can have the contacts and have them intervene very quickly."
The French government has held a series of meetings this week to discuss surging numbers of bedbug infestations while the country is hosting the Rugby World Cup and is preparing to host the Paris 2024 Olympics next summer. Earlier on Friday, the Education Minister told AFP that five schools with a total of 1,500 students had been closed.
Earlier this week, authorities announced that a school in Marseille and another in Villefranche-sur-Saone, near Lyon in southeastern France, had been shut for cleaning. A municipal library in the northern city of Amiens is due to reopen today after being closed for several days following the discovery of bedbugs in public reading spaces, the city's mayor Brigitte Foure told AFP.
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Paris's deputy mayor Emmanuel Grégoire said "no one is safe" as infestations have continued to rise due to an uptick in travel and increasing resistance to pesticides. Skin-crawling footage has gone viral of the bugs not just on beds but on public transport, cinemas and hospitals too.
Mr Gregoire wrote a letter on behalf of City Hall calling on Prime Minister Elizabeth Borne to act on the "scourge". He wrote: "Bedbugs 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."
Bedbugs are small brown insects, close in size to apple seeds, that hide in mattresses and box springs and emerge at night to bite and feed on blood. They often then crawl rapidly to clothing and luggage, hence them spreading to other areas such as public transport.
They are also a large economic strain, with it costing an average of €866 (£750) per household to eradicate and an annual national average of €230 million (£199m). In August, someone posted pictures on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, showing what she said were markings on her body from bed bugs in her seat at a Paris cinema.
This week, Eurostar said it is fighting the threat of a bed bug invasion from France by stepping up its cleaning regime. With one of the main bridges between the UK and Paris being Eurostar, on Tuesday the company confirmed it was ramping up "preventative treatments" across its entire network to keep the critters on the other side of the Channel, the Independent reported.
A spokesperson told the publication that bedbugs on its trains are "extremely rare", and said that the textile surfaces on all of our trains are cleaned thoroughly on a regular basis". They added that "cleaning teams, in addition to the usual cleaning, will also disinfect a train on request or as soon as there is the slightest doubt".
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