UK isn’t prepared for bedbug invasion, top disaster expert warns

A leading disaster expert has warned that Britain “is not ready” for the bedbug invasion claimed to be gripping the French capital.

Reports of infestations in Paris have been on the rise, to the extent that one French MP last week brought a test tube filled with dead bugs into parliament to warn that the parasites were “proliferating in all daily living spaces” and were making the lives of millions “a living hell”.

Such claims have sparked concerns that the infestation could soon reach London, with Underground passengers fretting over whether to sit down on the Tube for fear of contamination.

“I promise you this... Britain is not ready for an invasion of bed bugs,” disaster management expert Professor Lucy Easthope wrote on Twitter/X.

“I once got caught up in an outbreak in Knoxville and the lengths you have to go to get rid of them is arduous. Ditching your bed is not enough,” added Prof Easthope, who has worked on the Covid crisis and the 9/11 and 7/7 attacks over her two decades in the field.

But experts have been pointing to the rising threat of bedbugs for years, with pest control company Rentokil warning back in August of a 65 per cent increase in infestations across the UK since 2022.

This week, Luton Council reported an “alarming number of bedbug jobs on a weekly basis”, according to the BBC, with the council’s pest control experts having dealt with 86 such incidents in the past year – albeit not as dramatic a rise as that reported by Rentokil.

Issuing guidance on what people should do to prepare their homes for “treatment”, the council warned it did not have “limitless resources” to tackle the issue.

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Bedbugs are small insects, typically around 5mm long, which feast on blood and whose primary hosts are humans, causing itchy bites that can be painful but are not known to spread or carry any disease.

The NHS warns bedbugs can hide on bed frames, mattresses, clothing, furniture, behind pictures and under loose wallpaper.

“It is very likely that we are going to hear about more infestations in the UK because bedbugs are increasing globally,” said Professor James Logan, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

“Bed bugs are becoming resistant to insecticides that we normally use to kill them. We are also seeing increasing travel which helps them to spread,” he added.

Professor Robert Smith, of the University of Huddersfield, added that the increasing reports of bedbugs in Luton and elsewhere “are likely to reflect widespread media coverage over the last week or so”.

But he added that infestations have “become more common over many years in the UK and across the world”.

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“Bed bugs can be hard to get rid of because they live for many months and hide in cracks and crevices during the day,” he said. “I avoid unpacking luggage in hotels (I leave my clothes in a zipped suitcase) and never use hotel drawers to reduce the chances of picking up unwanted bugs. Some people store their suitcases in the hotel bathtub.”

Urging people not to panic if they think they have bedbugs, Prof Smith advised: “Washing bed clothes at a higher temperature or putting sheets in sealed bags in a freezer for a couple of days will kill some of them off. Regular vacuum cleaning of mattresses and the crevices in bedrooms will help.

“You are likely to need professional help from your local council or pest-control company, however, if you want to eliminate them completely.”

London’s mayor Sadiq Khan has told ITV that Transport for London is conducting “world-leading” cleaning and told passengers to remain “vigilant”.

“The good news is there is no evidence of those issues in London,” the mayor said. “There is no complacency at all – lots of preventative measures.

“I want to reassure everybody public transport is safe in London but we have to keep on being vigilant to make sure all steps that can be taken are taken to make sure we're not seeing in London what we are seeing in France.”