Bedbug Outbreak Sparks Fear Of International Infestation In Paris

Paris is burning its luggage and bed linen as it battles a “scourge” of bedbugs, stoking fears of infestation around the world as pest

Versenews gathered that pest-control companies over recent weeks across France have reported a huge increase in bedbug call-outs.

Bedbugs have also been reported in cinemas, trains, hospitals, schools and almost everywhere in the country.

Social media has hugely amplified public anxiety – though many videos circulating on the internet turn out to be of insects that are not bedbugs.

In the latest verified case, teachers at a high school named ‘Elisa-Lemonnier lycée’ in the 12th district of Paris refused to work on Friday after several classrooms, offices and changing areas were found to have bedbugs.

Among the new facts to emerge are interesting details about the sex-life of cimex lectularius, to use the insects’ formal name.

According to scientists, bedbugs are one of the few species to practice “traumatic insemination”. With his barbed needle of a penis, the male bedbug can pierce the female at any point of her body.

His sperm then makes its way via the bloodstream to her reproductive organ. Over the millennia, females have actually developed a dent in their abdomen to encourage males to pierce them at that spot.

Male bedbugs also display homosexual behaviour, and even try to inseminate other species.

However, France’s government is working hard is currently working hard to bring a lasting solution to the insect outbreak.