Will Paris bedbugs travel to the UK?

[RadishRose]

Paris bedbugs have already spread to the UK, parasite expert warns

Amid the ongoing bedbug crisis in Paris, an expert has claimed the parasite could already be spreading in the UK.

After bedbug sightings on trains and cinemas in France, an expert is warning that the blood-sucking parasites could be hitching a ride to the UK on the Eurostar.

The international rail company says it is taking swift action to prevent the bedbugs infesting its trains.
But some fear that the insects could already be in homes in London.
Here’s what you should know about reducing the risk of spread if you’re traveling back from France.

The pest control expert said a person who reported bedbugs in their London home had “been on the Eurostar a week before.”​

He added that this is not a new problem.
“I have known people go on day trips to Paris not even staying in hotels or other high-risk activities and come back with them,” he told UK newspaper the Independent.

 

[hollydolly]

Scaremongering... they're far more likely to be in Germany or any other country which shares a border with France, than have to come over the seas to the UK..having said that they could well come on the clothes of all the illegal boat people arriving from France on a daily basis.. much more likely than being on Eurostar

 

[Murrmurr]

"Will Paris bedbugs travel to the UK?"

With winter around the corner, wouldn't you?

 

[oldaunt]

Bedbugs travel everywhere people do. They don't just ride on illegals. That sort of elitist thinking is one thing that helps spread them.

 

[timoc]

Rose, and the rest of you, behave yourselves, you've got me scratching like mad as though I'm lousy with the BUGgers.

 

[VaughanJB]

Haven't there always been bed bugs? I've not kept up with the story, as these genetically modified bed bugs, or what? It's an insect. They attack man constantly.

 

[hollydolly]

The bedbug plague in France has seen families in Marseille dump their infested mattresses out into the streets in a bid to rid themselves of the pests.

The French government is battling to contain a bout of nationwide panic, after several schools were closed across the country due to the infestation plaguing the country.

Footage shows residents walking past discarded mattresses in one of the streets in France's second largest city, with some of the items lying in the road and others propped up against buildings.

Locals are also chucking out their home furnishings because of the issue, with a placard reading 'bedbugs' pinned to the headboard of a bed to warn others not to take it.

The crisis has been something of sore spot for France, which is due to host thousands of British and Irish rugby fans in Marseilles and Paris for the Rugby World Cup this weekend.

 

[hollydolly]

Alarm in Britain over a possible bed bug invasion from France grew today as Tube passengers refused to sit on seats, a council in Bedfordshire received an 'alarming number of calls' and there was an apparent sighting on a bus in Manchester.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said the issue was a 'real source of concern' and he had contacted officials in Paris after the French capital became overwhelmed by an outbreak with the insects reported in schools, trains, hospitals and cinemas.

Concerns have grown over an infestation in London after a video went viral over the weekend of what was claimed to be a bed bug on a person's leg on the Victoria line.

There are also fears the bed bug invasion has reached Luton in Bedfordshire after the local authority said it had received an 'alarming number' of calls about the insects. Elsewhere, a bed bug was supposedly spotted on a bus in Manchester yesterday.

There has been increasing concern in recent days that the French outbreak could spread to the UK, not least because rugby fans are travelling to and from France for the World Cup - with England playing Fiji in the quarter-final in Marseille on Sunday.