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I've just removed that AirBnB weekend in Paris from my things to do this year list :)

by baz00 3y ago

kergonath 3y ago
It’s not unique to Paris. It is a scourge in the UK as well, and an American friend told me that it was a problem in New York as well (I know, not a great source… I read NYT articles about that but they don’t immediately show up in my history).
- basisword 3y ago
  >> It is a scourge in the UK as well Do you mean in AirBnB’s or generally? Fwiw I don’t know or know of anyone in the UK that has ever dealt with bedbugs. They’re a thing I’ve only heard about in TV shows set in NYC.
  - 317070 3y ago
    I live in London and had bedbugs in my apartment 2 years ago. I knew what to watch for (colinear musquito bites), so got rid of them at the first sign. No idea where they came from, though. But the building is old and they might have crawled from a neighbour's bedroom.
    - Kailhus 3y ago
      Can confirm, they are a thing in London.
  - jinnko 3y ago
    Last year we were at a very well kept Airbnb in Cornwall that turned out to have been bugs. Last spring we stayed at an equally nice family place in the black forest (Germany) also with bed bugs. My brother bought a nice wooden cabinet in London that turned out to be infested. It's incredibly distressing cuz you don't want to bring them home. And I've spoken with a fair few people since who've had similar experiences in the past few years.
  - kergonath 3y ago
    > Do you mean in AirBnB’s or generally? Generally. In any case they get carried very easily in clothes or suitcases and you need only a couple of them to start an infestation somewhere else. If they are in AirBnBs, it means that there are also in a lot of houses. I got some in a London flat. A friend of mine got some in Manchester. They are not that common, but they are on the rise, which is concerning. It’s like early COVID, nobody has it until everybody does. See for example https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/aug/19/bedbugs-heatwave-sparks-plage-pest-infestation https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/aug/19/bedbugs-heat... from a couple of years ago, or https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/bed-bugs-epidemic-pest-control-b2393197.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/bed-bugs-epi... .
- guntherhermann 3y ago
  I live in the UK (north), and I've never in my life heard of anyone dealing with bedbugs here, and can corroborate with the sibling that the only time I've ever heard about them is through US popular culture shows (I thought they were just a warm-climate bug)
  - david-gpu 3y ago
    Lucky you! The only time I've had to deal with bedbugs was in the UK (Brighton, in winter) and getting rid of them was as much of a PITA as everybody says.
  - leke 3y ago
    Yep, I also went to Paris and got bit on the train, then in the hotel every night. They were also in the suitcase when I got home, but luckily I read up on how to deal with them and killed them all.
  - kergonath 3y ago
    We don’t really know why they are coming back. But the fact that they used to be everywhere less than a century ago should make everyone think about protective strategies, instead of thinking that they are someone else’s problem. This is not “lol Paris” (or “lol AirBnB” like some say in other posts), this is a Europe-wide public health problem in the making. AFAICT the number of infestations grew 65% in a year in the UK. A couple of years at that rate and even if you’ve never seen any yet, you are likely to know them intimately.
    - gpt5 3y ago
      Why are you ruling out AirBnB’s popularity as a cause? It seems quite plausible, isn’t it?
      - lotsofpulp 3y ago
        Hotels get bed bugs all the time. The cause is people traveling, allowing bed bugs to hitch a ride.
- wincy 3y ago
  We had an in home care nurse who watched our disable infant daughter go on a trip to Abu Dhabi trip, and brought back bed bugs. The nursing company tried to act like this was our responsibility, and tried to act like it was our fault, as if we’d made bedbugs appear ex nihilo. Luckily a lifetime ago I was a licensed exterminator and got it sorted. Treating for bed bugs is not fun, though, and part of the reason I got out of the pest control game. It involves either laboriously treating with chemicals in hard to reach places or wearing a tin foil suit and literally blasting your bedroom with heat to get it to 140°F (60C) or so to kill all of the bedbugs. It’s been a few years and I’ve never seen another one, but definitely felt like I dodged a bullet.
  - kergonath 3y ago
    > Luckily a lifetime ago I was a licensed exterminator and got it sorted. I have a hunch this might be a very useful and marketable skill in the near future… Seriously, well done because as you say getting rid of them is no fun.
  - lotsofpulp 3y ago
    Anyone can get bed bugs anytime from anywhere. There is no way to protect against it, outside of not leaving your bedbug free home. I can see the nursing company’s point of view, since it is akin to an act of God. What were they supposed to do? Ban their employees from traveling in their time off?
    - Noumenon72 3y ago
      You can protect against it by leaving your belongings in the hotel bathtub where bedbugs can't get in, or putting possessions in the dryer when you get home from travel. I agree that you're just going to have to accept that nurses might have them; this will reduce the demand for nurses, the same way I won't buy furniture from Goodwill any more.
- randomcarbloke 3y ago
  I've never encountered bedbugs in London or known anyone plagued by them I've been here a decade or so. I've never encountered them in NYC or Berlin either although I have spent comparatively little time there...anecdotally Paris is certainly an outlier.

I've just removed that AirBnB weekend in Paris from my things to do this year list :)

by baz00 3y ago

I've just removed that AirBnB weekend in Paris from my things to do this year list :)

It’s not unique to Paris. It is a scourge in the UK as well, and an American friend told me that it was a problem in New York as well (I know, not a great source… I read NYT articles about that but they don’t immediately show up in my history).

basisword 3y ago
>> It is a scourge in the UK as well Do you mean in AirBnB’s or generally? Fwiw I don’t know or know of anyone in the UK that has ever dealt with bedbugs. They’re a thing I’ve only heard about in TV shows set in NYC.
- 317070 3y ago
  I live in London and had bedbugs in my apartment 2 years ago. I knew what to watch for (colinear musquito bites), so got rid of them at the first sign. No idea where they came from, though. But the building is old and they might have crawled from a neighbour's bedroom.
  - Kailhus 3y ago
    Can confirm, they are a thing in London.
- jinnko 3y ago
  Last year we were at a very well kept Airbnb in Cornwall that turned out to have been bugs. Last spring we stayed at an equally nice family place in the black forest (Germany) also with bed bugs. My brother bought a nice wooden cabinet in London that turned out to be infested. It's incredibly distressing cuz you don't want to bring them home. And I've spoken with a fair few people since who've had similar experiences in the past few years.
- kergonath 3y ago
  > Do you mean in AirBnB’s or generally? Generally. In any case they get carried very easily in clothes or suitcases and you need only a couple of them to start an infestation somewhere else. If they are in AirBnBs, it means that there are also in a lot of houses. I got some in a London flat. A friend of mine got some in Manchester. They are not that common, but they are on the rise, which is concerning. It’s like early COVID, nobody has it until everybody does. See for example https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/aug/19/bedbugs-heatwave-sparks-plage-pest-infestation https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/aug/19/bedbugs-heat... from a couple of years ago, or https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/bed-bugs-epidemic-pest-control-b2393197.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/bed-bugs-epi... .
guntherhermann 3y ago
I live in the UK (north), and I've never in my life heard of anyone dealing with bedbugs here, and can corroborate with the sibling that the only time I've ever heard about them is through US popular culture shows (I thought they were just a warm-climate bug)
- david-gpu 3y ago
  Lucky you! The only time I've had to deal with bedbugs was in the UK (Brighton, in winter) and getting rid of them was as much of a PITA as everybody says.
- leke 3y ago
  Yep, I also went to Paris and got bit on the train, then in the hotel every night. They were also in the suitcase when I got home, but luckily I read up on how to deal with them and killed them all.
- kergonath 3y ago
  We don’t really know why they are coming back. But the fact that they used to be everywhere less than a century ago should make everyone think about protective strategies, instead of thinking that they are someone else’s problem. This is not “lol Paris” (or “lol AirBnB” like some say in other posts), this is a Europe-wide public health problem in the making. AFAICT the number of infestations grew 65% in a year in the UK. A couple of years at that rate and even if you’ve never seen any yet, you are likely to know them intimately.
  - gpt5 3y ago
    Why are you ruling out AirBnB’s popularity as a cause? It seems quite plausible, isn’t it?
    - lotsofpulp 3y ago
      Hotels get bed bugs all the time. The cause is people traveling, allowing bed bugs to hitch a ride.
wincy 3y ago
We had an in home care nurse who watched our disable infant daughter go on a trip to Abu Dhabi trip, and brought back bed bugs. The nursing company tried to act like this was our responsibility, and tried to act like it was our fault, as if we’d made bedbugs appear ex nihilo. Luckily a lifetime ago I was a licensed exterminator and got it sorted. Treating for bed bugs is not fun, though, and part of the reason I got out of the pest control game. It involves either laboriously treating with chemicals in hard to reach places or wearing a tin foil suit and literally blasting your bedroom with heat to get it to 140°F (60C) or so to kill all of the bedbugs. It’s been a few years and I’ve never seen another one, but definitely felt like I dodged a bullet.
- kergonath 3y ago
  > Luckily a lifetime ago I was a licensed exterminator and got it sorted. I have a hunch this might be a very useful and marketable skill in the near future… Seriously, well done because as you say getting rid of them is no fun.
- lotsofpulp 3y ago
  Anyone can get bed bugs anytime from anywhere. There is no way to protect against it, outside of not leaving your bedbug free home. I can see the nursing company’s point of view, since it is akin to an act of God. What were they supposed to do? Ban their employees from traveling in their time off?
  - Noumenon72 3y ago
    You can protect against it by leaving your belongings in the hotel bathtub where bedbugs can't get in, or putting possessions in the dryer when you get home from travel. I agree that you're just going to have to accept that nurses might have them; this will reduce the demand for nurses, the same way I won't buy furniture from Goodwill any more.
randomcarbloke 3y ago
I've never encountered bedbugs in London or known anyone plagued by them I've been here a decade or so. I've never encountered them in NYC or Berlin either although I have spent comparatively little time there...anecdotally Paris is certainly an outlier.