They’re what you fear to find in a dingy motel room, or perhaps, an untidy college dormitory. Burrowing into seams of mattresses, crevices of walls, and sometimes, the folds of your own suitcase, bedbugs have gained a harsh reputation of being difficult to detect, and nearly impossible to exterminate. Thus, when the city of Paris, widely renowned for its beauty and elegance, suddenly had a bedbug problem, the world took notice.
This fall, media coverage of the Paris bedbug crisis boomed. Residents and tourists alike expressed shock over the frequent mattress disposals in the streets, as well as the suddenly visible creatures on not only public transportation, but also movie theaters and airports—no public area was safe.
However, many soon found that the unfortunate French city was not alone. Provided that the bugs easily travel along with humans by simply hitching a ride, the bedbug epidemic has quickly spread to both neighboring and faraway places. International plane travel, intercity train routes—bedbugs don’t care which city, or country their victims come from.
Explaining this “global resurgence” of bedbugs which plagues Earth, a scientific review blames the critters’ resistance to chemicals for the species’s increasing population. After receiving heavy exposure to certain harsh chemicals, the bugs have evolved to survive in spite of them. Nonetheless, experts assure that one method of extermination will likely remain viable: extreme heat, 122 degrees Fahrenheit to be specific.
While the worsening bedbug crisis poses an inconvenience to anyone affected, it also has the capability of wreaking havoc on one’s finances and mental health.
Removing the creatures often racks up a costly price tag. Low-income families who live check to check find difficulty in affording the thousands of dollars required for extermination.
Furthermore, survivors of a bedbug infestation report lasting mental effects.
According to the American Journal of Medicine, such ramifications include “nightmares, flashbacks, hypervigilance (to keep the bugs away), insomnia, anxiety, avoidance behaviors, and personal dysfunction.” Notably, experts tie each of these symptoms to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Evidently, bedbugs cause daily interruptions to the lives of those affected; regretfully, the world currently sees a major uptick in their populations.