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Comment by baz00 | Hacker News Reader

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).

>> 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.

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.

Can confirm, they are a thing in London.

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.

> 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-heat... from a couple of years ago, or https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/bed-bugs-epi... .

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)

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.

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.

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.

Why are you ruling out AirBnB’s popularity as a cause? It seems quite plausible, isn’t it?

Hotels get bed bugs all the time. The cause is people traveling, allowing bed bugs to hitch a ride.

And most hotels have centralized departments for dealing with it, contacts with extermination agencies, and a single large building to treat, and a very very strong incentive to get it done immediately, lest they lose all business and be forced to shut down.

I obviously don't know the specifics but I'd bet Hilton is a million times more effective at pest management than some 60 year old dude who put up his second home for extra income. To whom does the cost of extermination act as a large deterrent?

FYI, Hilton does not own or operate 99% of hotels with their brand name on it. Quality of management will vary greatly, but I agree that the probability of hotel management fixing the issue quicker is higher than an Airbnb operator.

It’s part of the problem, sure, but only a contributing factor. The story mentions them being found in cinemas and trains, which is uncommon, but they have been in hotels as well.

Hey mate, you're tilting at windmills. Chill with the hyperbole, it'll be ok.

I am not sure where you see hyperbole. Do you have an actual point to make?

> 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.

These are both sentences written in a highly emotional tone, that is attempting to fear-monger. It's hyperbole. Your reply is also again terse and unnecessary, I'm not your enemy, calm down and take a day off the internet if it's getting to you. Have a good day man, take care of yourself.

> grew 65% in a year in the UK

This sounds like a Daily Mail or Mirror quote, where generally their source is a pest control person or other business attempting to scare people into buying products.

Obviously everywhere is at risk for bed bugs but I don't think the UK has some major shock infestation in the way you're trying to imply.

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.

> 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.

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?

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.

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.

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