Arabella James hasn’t sat down on public transport for over a week now. As a south-west Londoner working in the City, the executive assistant is used to the daily battle for a seat on the Northern Line each morning — until this month, anyway.
“Suddenly I’ve never been happier to perch against the window on the Tube rather than fight for a seat,” says James, 29, in a nod to the so-called ‘super-bedbug’ infestation that’s sweeping Paris and has, according to some experts, already made its way to London. Given the Eurostar’s direct connection into King’s Cross, the Tube has been pinpointed as a potential hotspot for the blood-sucking, apple seed-sized insects, whose bites cause painful itching, with TikTok users already sharing now-viral videos of what they believe to be bedbugs on the Victoria Line and DLR last week.
James fears it’s only a matter of time before the six-legged critters make it onto the Northern Line, her office — or worse, her own bed, if they haven’t already. “As a clean freak, this is honestly my worst nightmare,” she says, itching at the thought. “The worst part is there’s only so much we can do. What if someone sits at my desk who has a bedbug on them and then it gets onto me? What if my housemate brings them back from a night out? It’s ironic I’ve never caught bedbugs in Asia or central America and now I’m worried about them on my own front doorstep. At this rate I might have to get a hazmat suit for commuting.”
James isn’t alone in her fears of the capital’s newly-anticipated bugaggeddon. The early-autumn heatwave might finally be over but reports from the French capital have quickly given Londoners a new reason for sleepless nights, with Mayor of London Sadiq Khan calling the prospect of bedbugs on the capital’s public transport network “a real cause of concern” as pest control specialists warn that the wingless bugs are “incredible hitchhikers” and perfectly capable of surviving the two hour, 16 minute train ride from Paris to London.
Eurostar says it has installed “preventative measures” on its trains between London and Paris in light of the outbreak, but some experts have warned that it might already be too late. Paris’ deputy mayor Emmanuel Grégoire recently warned that the outbreak is already “widespread” and that “no one is safe” ahead of an inter-ministerial bedbug crisis meeting on Friday, with residents saying they feel like “plague victims” and social media crawling with footage of the critters inside hotel rooms, cinemas and on public transport including at Charles de Gaulle Airport.
“My son and I were devoured,” Californian journalist Maggie Kim wrote on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, after a visit to an AirBnb in Paris reportedly left her with 50 “blistering” bites on her arms, neck and hands last week. Others in Paris have been burning their luggage and bed linen amid the scourge, with many worried that this month’s Rugby World Cup and last week’s Paris Fashion Week, which have both seen thousands travelling to the French capital from around the globe, will only have compounded the risk of the infestation spreading.
“They’re already on [London] buses, trains, tubes, cinemas, doctor’s surgeries, public spaces, hospitals,” says David Cain, microbiologist and founder of Bed Bugs Ltd, as officials at Transport for London (TfL) confirm they are “monitoring” the situation closely, despite not being aware of any outbreaks in London thus far (experts say the TikTok video claiming to show a bedbug on the Victoria Line over the weekend, now watched more than 1.6 million times, ”looks wrong” and is “not really good enough to ID from”).
TfL aren’t the only ones keeping a close eye on the prospect of a London outbreak. The airline AirFrance says it will ground any aircraft with bedbugs found onboard and a major UK hotel chain says it is currently deep-cleaning the rooms of guests who’ve arrived from France. Some Londoners have already started taking the situation into their own hands, cancelling holidays to Paris, refusing to buy second-hand furniture and choosing not to take public transport or at least not sit down on it.
Even if the bugs are yet to invade Londoners homes, many say the critters have already invaded their minds. “This girl just brought her own chair to sit on the train so she doesn’t get the bed bugs,” one woman tweeted last week as UK Google searches for bedbugs reportedly skyrocketed amid fears of a “bugdemic” and “Covid with legs”. Many of those expressing fears on social media appear to be people who’ve experienced a bedbug infestation before, and are still haunted by the process of trying to get rid of them. “Bedbugs broke me. They stole 8 months of my life,” tweeted a woman called Hev, project manager at Black Girl Gamers, in a now-viral thread on her bedbug PTSD and how the paranoia never goes away. “Nothing has ever given me sleepless nights like when I encountered those demons,” another X user agreed over the weekend.
The increase in cases is likely to be down to a spike in international travel, a fall in people being able to afford pest control and a hotter-than-average October
Officials at Eurostar say the textile seats on their trains are “cleaned thoroughly” on a regular basis, including use of a hot-water injection cleaning system and extraction cleaning that is “highly effective in eliminating bugs”. But Cain says the truth of it is that bedbugs aren’t some kind of medieval critter that’s sprung back out of the Tudor history books: they’ve been present in our cities for a long time — indeed there’s probably a similar level of bed bug infestation in London as there is in Paris already. The main difference between the approaches of Londoners and Parisians? The Parisians have been talking about the problem, doing their best to eliminate the bugs as the city prepares to host the 2024 Olympics next year. Londoners are “trying to keep the whole thing quiet.”
So should Londoners actually be worried about a full-on infestation like that in France? Is Paris’ ”wave of panic” justified, or is mostly just frenzied scaremongering? And with the capital’s bedbug rates rising year-on-year, is London actually any more at risk this autumn than any other year — or are we just more paranoid after Covid?
Quite possibly, according to those on the ground in Paris over recent weeks. “I think it may have been blown out of proportion,” says Quincy Dash, a celebrity PR specialist who’s just returned to London after 12 days in the French capital. He says bedbugs were indeed a big talking point at fashion week — all everyone wanted to talk about, in fact — but the reality was that no one he met out there saw a single critter all week. “I was dining out everyday and night and visiting different hotels due to VIP clients placed all over Paris, and I never saw any bedbugs in accommodation or transport at all,” he says.
Dr Hentley, an academic with the University of Sheffield’s school of biosciences, agrees that there’s been too much hysteria around the whole thing — and people sharing stories of whole train carriages screaming at the sight of a bedbug aren’t helping. Bedbugs were “fairly prevalent”in the UK already and while yes, this year has been the worst for bed bugs in the capital for 20 years, that was almost certainly the case before the Paris infestation, not because of it.
According to pest control experts, the reasons for this increase are likely to include a spike in international travel post-pandemic; a rise in sales of second-hand furniture from resale sites such as eBay and Facebook Marketplace; a fall in people being able to afford pest control because of the cost-of-living crisis; and a hotter-than-average October, with bedbug numbers normally highest in the warmer months.
“I started doing [bed bug control] in 2005, when bedbugs were rare and obscure, but [they are] not any more ,” says Cain. According to data from the British Pest Control Association and pest control company Rentokil, British bedbug infestations have risen by 65-per-cent year-on-year, with roughly 12,000 bedbug-related callouts every year — and that was before the latest Paris outbreak.
The truth is bedbugs are nothing new... Londoners have just become used to existential crises, they prepare themselves for the worst
Even that was nothing new. Paris launched its anti-bedbug campaign three years ago after noticing an uptick in the number of blood-sucking insects inside its buildings, and the bugs have long a big issue in major cities across the world. “New York has a far bigger bedbug problem than here,” says Tommy Bull from Bed Bug Specialist UK.
“The truth is bedbugs in London are nothing new,” says Hana Patel, an NHS GP working in Dulwich. She believes many Londoners have become so used to existential crises these days that they start preparing themselves for the worst the moment they see a scary headline. But the reality is that we’re not about to have a Covid-style bedbug crisis or have to lockdown in our homes again, in her opinion. “It’s just a spike we might have to deal with for a little while.”
Bedbugs on the Victoria line, it’s so over pic.twitter.com/E8XKYH63gs
— notbri.sol (@Xhakaed) October 7, 2023
All of that said, it’s worth taking precautions, says Cain. Bedbugs might not be a new problem here in London (“Paris has been a popular link for the last six years”), but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t better educate ourselves about them. He believes a public education campaign on the super-critters — something he’s been calling for since 2006 — would make a big difference in helping to reduce the spread, particularly because there’s so much psychological aversion to bedbugs ingrained in the national psyche.
“Some people who seem to have it all together simply turn into a gibbering wreck [at the mention of bedbugs],” says Cain, who has a whole section of his website dedicated just to the psychology of bedbugs and emotional support. “People are scared by what they don’t understand, but we understand what you are going through.”
Home repairs firm Checkatrade has some simple solutions for ensuring your home stays bedbug free: washing and drying your clothes at a high temperature; keeping your home clean and tidy so they have fewer places to hide; vacuuming regularly. James is among Londoners saying she’s upped cleaning precautions around the home since the news of Paris’ outbreak. But unfortunately bedbugs aren’t just a problem restricted to the bedroom. She’s considering walking to work, while others say they’re considering working from home until the rumoured outbreak dies down. “I’ve been wondering about trying to WFH for a bit to avoid the tube” says Danny Holden, a PR exec commuting from Brixton.
Dominic Wyatt from the International Drivers Association recommends placing a towel or other barrier between yourself and the seat if you’re taking a taxi or public transport, and to limit the contact your personal belongings make with the upholstery. For those booking an upcoming holiday, dealchecker travel expert Rosie Panter recommends paying particular attention to reviews on sites like TripAdvisor and social media before booking your hotel. “If you are travelling through multiple countries, having your own sleeping bag will provide some refuge and mean you’ll have clean bedding,” she says.
There’s so much psychological aversion to bedbugs ingrained in the national psyche. Some people turn into a gibbering wreck
As for your luggage, choose a suitcase with minimal nooks and crannies so it can be easily wiped down, pack your belongings into sealed plastic bags inside your suitcase to minimise cross-contamination, and resist the urge to chuck your bag straight onto the bed when you arrive at your hotel, advises Rentokil. Instead, place it onto a luggage stand or in the bathtub or shower while you’re checking the bed and mattress for signs of bedbugs. Make sure you run everything from a wash cycle and hot dryer cycle when you get home.
So what should you look for, when inspecting your bed or seat on public transport? Wingless, apple-seed-sized insects with six legs and an oval, rusty-coloured body, according to experts. “Adult bed bugs are 5.5 mm long (about the size of an apple seed) and a brown colour so you will be able to see them at this stage,” says a spokesperson from Checkatrade. “However, young bedbugs are smaller, and a light white-yellow colour so are much harder to spot, so don’t rely on a visual inspection alone.”
Signs your home might already have bedbugs include: blood on your bedding, pale yellow eggs, a musty odour, dark spots on the walls and white spots on the furniture, says Nic Shacklock from Online-Bedrooms. The other telltale sign is of course the bites themselves. “The bites will often form a straight line across a part of your body — this is a hallmark bed bug trait,” says Shacklock. “Mosquitoes and fleas don’t bite in this formation, so if you do notice these red spots it is best to seek medical advice.”
Your local pharmacist is a good place to start if you think you have bedbug bites, says pharmacist and healthcare lawyer Thorrun Govind. “A steroid cream like hydrocortisone cream can ease bedbug bites and antihistamines can help with the itch.” If you can’t get to a pharmacy immediately, Cain’s home remedy suggestion is to make a paste out of baking soda and an ice cube and apply it to the bite for 30 seconds.
The bad news is bedbugs can lay up to 250 eggs a month, so Cain and his fellow experts agree it’s essential to act quickly and decisively. The good news is that bedbug numbers are normally highest in the warmer months, while they tend to hibernate over winter. If you needed a reason to be glad this unseasonal October heatwave is finally coming to an end, this might just be it.
