The National Academy of Medicine provides instructions for getting rid of bedbugs from your home.
- To eliminate bedbugs from your home, “treatment must favor mechanical and thermal means of control,” indicates the National Academy of Medicine.
- Chemical disinfestation with authorized products is also necessary.
- Bedbugs can cause severe itching (“pruritus”) and an allergic reaction with hives or secondary infection.
In a press release, the National Academy of Medicine takes stock of what we know about bedbugs, indicating in particular how to dislodge this pest once and for all.
“Treatment must favor mechanical and thermal means of control: vacuuming of surfaces, freezing at -20°C of clothing and small infested objects for at least 48 hours, machine washing for at least one hour at 60°C, cleaning with steam at 120°C (effective in eliminating all the evolving stages of the parasite), heating tents”, first indicate the experts. “As a remedy, chemical disinfestation with authorized products is necessary. This must be done twice for effective elimination and while respecting the rules of their use. The first application kills the adults and larvae but does not affect the eggs, which justifies a second application a month later to kill the newly hatched young bedbugs. they add.
Bedbug bites: what are the health risks?
Bed bug bites, which have the characteristic of following the line of a blood vessel, are generally painless and will only be felt after several hours. The typical skin lesion from a bite is comparable to that of other arthropod attacks. “It is an erythematous and itchy papule with a diameter of 5 mm to 2 cm topped with a hemorrhagic crust or a vesicle. It has never been demonstrated that bedbugs could be the cause of a transmission to humans of one of the 45 pathogenic agents that they can harbor”, specifies the institution.
“Bedbug bites do not transmit diseases (viruses, bacteria, parasites) confirmed Dr. Clothide Bonnet. “However, they can cause severe itching (“pruritus”) and an allergic reaction with hives or secondary infection. Bites can also become superinfected (impetigo) in the event of excessive scratching with dirty hands. In the event of significant discomfort, you should consult a doctor to prescribe a soothing treatment. The presence of bedbugs can also cause stress, anxiety and insomnia. she explains.
Why are bedbugs back in France?
The common bedbug (Cimex lectularius) is a blood-sucking pest which has caused concern and strong media coverage in the last months of 2023. This nocturnal and gregarious insect, subservient to humans for thousands of years, was well known before the Second World War. Around the 1950s in big cities, it had disappeared from daily concerns. Subsequently, the ban on the use of insecticides that are effective but too dangerous for human health such as DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) and the appearance of resistance to other insecticides favored its growth, first in the United States. United of America then in Europe. In France, the percentage of households infected by bedbugs was around 7% in 2014 and was estimated at 11% in 2023.
“The other causes of this rise in bedbugs are multiple: increase in cases of contamination during travel, increase in the second-hand market (furniture, particularly bedding), overall ignorance of the insect or even the dilapidation of certain housing facilitating the colonization of a building”, completes the National Academy of Medicine.
