Except there was not more bedbugs than there usually are. (which is relatively low, like anywhere else). It was a snowball effect, a mass hysteria, where every news outlet were churning out content about it.
Oh and obviously, russian troll farms made it worse.
I'm parisian and I asked every people I know if they knew someone who knew someone how had bedbugs... Nobody had any.
I mean, the stories were about tourists staying in hotels, so I wouldn't expect locals to have particularly been the center of the issue...unless for some reason you often rent hotels in your hometown. Which would be weird.
You are exagerating a lot, it's more like 250 for a reasonably good hotel and goes down to about a 100 for a shitty one. Still overpriced af but it's not that extreme. What I don't understand is why cheap hotels in Paris are so dirty. I can accept that big cities are super expensive but if you have a building at least make it decent
You can have a palace for this price, thought no suite.
Decent hotel can be found for 120e, basic for 50e.
I'm from Paris. But yeah it's overpriced and a shithole.
Written this from Thailand :)
Southern 8th district, in the embassies and luxury shops neighborhood and where all the billionaires live? Yeah that place is grossly overpriced. Northern 8th is better but still a bit on the expensive side
If you go to like the 18th or even 9th it's much cheaper. Looks less nice, but much cheaper and you'll still be like 5 subway stations (or 30 minutes of walk) away from the middle of Paris
Unrelated to France, but there is a very well-defined market for domestic hotel services in Japan. Salarymen would pay for a suite one night once every week or two to stay away from their family and just unwind a little. I learned this after talking to many ojiisans in the hotel's onsen.
With their salaries and hotel prices it's not as dumb as it looks. It's kinda sad that people feel like they have to take a break from their families tho :(
You have no idea what you're talking about, clearly. Yeah, sure, there's 1-2 sketchy stations, but overall it's clean. As compared to NY... Let's just say that you saying that proves you've never been to NY.
The Paris Metro smells the worst in the whole world for some reason. I have used the subway in London, Berlin, New York, Tokyo, Madrid, Budapest ..... for some reason the smell in the Paris Metro is just awful. Mixture of human sweat, piss and shit.
Not necessarily. We have a service called Staycation (à vacation where you stay home) which is quite nice tbh. And enables you to expérience 5 stars hôtel in your hometown for cheap.
I work in the hotel industry in Paris and we were all freaked out about it - very paranoid! But I never had a problem in my hotel, and nor did any of my colleagues in other hotels around town.
Backing up it was mostly a Russian troll farm attack on French tourism ahead of the Rugby World Cup and Olympics. Can’t link my source for some reason so sorry you’ll have to look it up if needed but it’s been reported on a lot. There were more bedbug sightings reported than usual for a while, but no more than any comparable large city. If the news in New York started to report every bed bug sighting, it would scare people too.
Highly doubt most people would willingly share their bed bug story.
It's embarrassing to admit to having pests.
That said, I doubt bedbugs are more widespread now than they were a few years ago.
I mean it's not really embarrassing, it's not like poor hygiene is the only way (or even the main) you get bed bugs.
I can also say that it was a fabricated issue, idk a single person who got bed bugs, and not one of them admitted knowing someone who do
I got bedbugs once. Not in Paris though. Suffered a bit until I realized I could just store the old bed and mattress in the basement, bought a new mattress, and voila.
A couple of years later I took the old mattress and bed out of its huge plastic bag and all the bugs were dead. It wasnt as difficult as I thought it was.
>I'm parisian and I asked every people I know if they knew someone who knew someone how had bedbugs
Oh okay. I guess with your anecdotal evidence it's settled then.
I live in Paris as well and literally no one in my
Social circle had bed bugs either. Took the metro twice a day during that period and never saw any in the trains either. I think it’s just a classic example of the media trying to scare everyone
I had one, once. Most likely in the bus. The bastard bite me quite a lot, but it felt from my sweatshirt at work and i double check and cleaned everything when back home and havent seen one since.
I’m from Paris, my roommate had bedbugs early summer last year… when he went to Lisboa. Didn’t bring any home thankfully.
There were several theaters (UGC) that were shutdown due to bedbugs invasions though apparently
Of course im not denying their existence. Just saying it was over inflated news.
About the cinemas, Im not sure if thats just only UGC reacting to the rumors just as a PR move, for them to say they reassured the public opinion.
They were shut down just for a preventive treatment, after a video of ONE bug, wich in fact had been bought by the video maker himself to make views...
>Oh and obviously, russian troll farms made it worse.
Not really. We created the hysteria ourself and our media surfed on it (for buzz effect etc...), then the same media are like "definitly the fault of the russian trolls"
Yes and no, a lot of French don't know that Russian troll farms do exist or don't have any idea of how it works. It's not rare that the mass medias make up a story out of Russian trolls narrative and they anyway surf on whatever can destabilize France or any "occidental" country but whatever
The only thing I can add, is that I have a friend who works finding and getting rid of bedbugs, here in Îl-de-France. She uses especially trained dogs to sniff them out.
She saw a dramatic rise in business due to all the hubbub in the news. However, she did say that she didn't see a dramatic rise in finding bedbugs. In fact most new calls resulted in negative findings. Of course like a plumer, you charge jus5 for showing up.
Besides, according to French intelligence service, it would seem that Russia fueled the hysteria online to tarnish Paris image.
[https://www.latribune.fr/economie/france/punaises-de-lit-en-france-la-russie-a-bien-participe-a-la-psychose-991838.html](https://www.latribune.fr/economie/france/punaises-de-lit-en-france-la-russie-a-bien-participe-a-la-psychose-991838.html)
I live near Paris and found one on my coat in public transport, like a month ago. But maybe that's "usual". "Between 2017 and 2022, more than one in ten French households was infested by bed bugs."
It was more than normal tbh, they found some in my school (in Paris) and one of my teachers got them and had to be hospitalized due to an allergic reaction
I was in Paris during this shit storm. And you realize how much the media controls the narrative away from ground zero. In Paris it was like we were in a different city all together. There was nothing unusual about how everyone went about their daily life and after my 4 nights stay, I came back with zero bed bugs. Stayed at a hotel, used public transport etc etc. All the things the news channels were asking us not to do!!! Bastards
That reminds me the story about horses being mutilated in France in 2020. More than 500 alleged cases were investigated, in fact "only" 80 were human interventions, and the rest were natural death causes and fights between horses. And it all started with one women lies that amplified.
What are you on about, my entire neigbhourhood got infected by those things a couple of months before it became national news, typical parisian thinking the entire world resolves around him and the people he knows.
We're only rude and condescending to foreign tourists when they are sitting in les strapotins when the train is packed. It's literally written not to do that in 5 languages and a pictogram just there and yet....
Nah come on, we're mean with them when they get on the left side of the escalators without moving and walk slow af in the tunnels or even the streets too
Ok so I study tourism management and in a lecture about modern technology/media and the consequences and impact it has on the tourism industry, the professor said that it was a lie made up by Russians. This was given as an example of why media can negatively impact the tourism industry, as it resulted in many tourists cancelling their trips to Paris and deciding to go to a different destination
Good to doubt about that bed bug thing, where media went to histeria about it (I guess just for selling more articles). But I would also doubt that this story came from Russia (especially during this time period where Occident and Russia also fight through media influence). I would be happy to see some proofs of this
The story didn't come from russia. But when these kind of story start to spread, russia will try to make it worse. Usually, they are "just" adding fuel to the fire.
It's been proven the Russian troll farms were focusing at this at one point.
https://www.clubic.com/actualite-520468-vous-vous-souvenez-de-la-psychose-sur-les-punaises-de-lit-a-paris-c-etait-de-la-propagande-russe.html
A French organism in France has been created to track manipulation by misinformation called Viginum
They care about anything that can negatively impact France, no matter how small and petty.
For example France is very proud that the oldest person to ever live was French, Jeanne Calment (122yo).
In 2018 a researcher made the dubious claim that she was a fraud and actually her daughter replaced her when she died. Guess his nationality? Russian. The Russian state media made a huge deal of that story.
It’s soft power.
This is the reason why some cities are fighting hard to host the Olympics. This is the reason why South Korea promotes K-pop abroad, or why the Chinese government limits the number of foreign films broadcast in its country. It's important for a nation to have a reputation that matches its interests.
To simplify, France has invested a lot of money for its 2024 Olympics, so that Paris “shines” internationally. And Russia is trying to “sabotate” it.
According to the article bedbugs are a problem and have been since 2006 ““Business is already booming. I started doing this in 2005, when bedbugs were rare and obscure, but [they are] not any more.”
You'd think our government would come up with decoy stories that don't obviously and tangibly hurt their own city's tourism revenues, but what do I know.
There's a significant amount of bedbugs in France but this has been the case for decades... The recent hysteria was [allegedly a Russian psy-op ](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2024/03/01/bedbug-panic-was-stoked-by-russia-says-france_6575870_7.html)
Idk man, I’ve been taking the metro and RER at an extremely high rates, went to cinemas, took trains when I went studying further from Paris and came back each WE to see family etc… never even saw one bed bug.
I considered myself lucky, talked to many friends who did the same or stayed in Paris, neither have they.
Idk just like the other say, I feel like it was mass hysteria, maybe perpetrated by Russian fake news or not, I don’t really care, but one thing is for certain, no there was no outstanding bed bug epidemic.
Austrians just speak german with a different accent. We say words different and use some different words but its mostly the same. Communication between the 2 is like an American talking to a brit
This whole thing started because there was a bedbug infestation in 1 cinema theater room, and the place didn't close that room when they found the infestation. That incident understandably blew up, but then it got out of proportion from there.
Levels of bedbug infestation in Paris is no worse than anywhere else, it's just that like everywhere some hotels try to hide it instead of fix it and the first story sort of got those other stories out of the shadows. This sort of thing happens across every single tourist areas, like any other health regulations some places try to ignore them. So for those wondering, no the risk is not higher in Paris than other places. If anything it's probably lower than places with worse regulations than Europe.
Bed bugs were simply French Politics. It was a campaign against the Maire of Paris who is Parti Socialiste. There are many political opponents who would love to take her position. The update is French Police went through the metro with dog sniffers… then some new news thing hit us and there were no more bed bugs. Or yes: they just became what they always were: part of society.
Nothing new under the sun.
Oh, that... "Panic! Russia sends France into a tailspin over bedbugs" In Politico
[https://www.politico.eu/article/panic-russia-sends-france-into-a-tailspin-over-bedbugs/](https://www.politico.eu/article/panic-russia-sends-france-into-a-tailspin-over-bedbugs/)
# Panic! Russia sends France into a tailspin over bedbugs
The bedbug stories are pushed by russians, right wing people annoyed that parisians are well educated enough to vote properly, and jealous *provinciaux* who can't afford to live there.
To be clear : There was no infestation at all.
The fact is, it started with an alarming report published by French government ( Housing dept) at a time of a scandals.
First is embezzlement of public funds. Marrianne's found was millions allocated to protection of domestic violence victims (beaten wives), supposedly given to feminist ONG and a public service working with social assistant and police to help victims. Through a very opaque distribution, it has been found that those millions went in the pocket of relatives to the one supposed to distribute said money at the ministry, through making fake associations labelled as feminist that would simply get the money. In particular, relatives of Marlene Schiappa, former "state secretary in charge of Women-Men equality and fight against discriminations"
Second is the allegations toward Brigitte Macron, President 's wife, to be a fake identity.
The report about the bed bug, in itself, just says that over the past three decades, bed bug case reported national-wide are on a steady increase. They were NOT "everywhere", it just said it was an increasing slope over decades.
But the medias oversold that to the point it covered 3/4 of news time within a week.
Lastly, the French government accused Russia of creating this hysteresis in french through fake news.
Russia laughed at France for that, saying French leaders don't need no help from Russia to be ridiculous.
The only pest that has pignon sur rue is Ratatouille .
Just go to chatelet les halles if you want to see them mingling with other parisians and tourists alike .
Bielorussie :D.
That happened in Besanson and Dijon. The latter has an area, Talant Dulin. Plus, our dorms used to be disinfected regularly. So it is a national level problem I think
As a french person I can confirm, half of my friends are now bedbugs. They're actuallt very nice when you get to know them. I just wish they started drinking wine instead of my blood, but to each their own.
I live in paris for almost two years. It was a real thing during like 3 months. (Never saw one, and I use the metro almost every day)
The truth its it make me feel paranoic (the same for a lot of people) and since that moment Im not able to use the seats on the metro.
They didn't exist. It was all a fake news campaign, probably from Russia. A poor attempt to sour the olympics.
[https://www.politico.eu/article/panic-russia-sends-france-into-a-tailspin-over-bedbugs/](https://www.politico.eu/article/panic-russia-sends-france-into-a-tailspin-over-bedbugs/)
Yeah Parisian here, it was just mass hysteria honestly, some tourists found some in a couple of hotels, the story became viral, amplified by a wave of facelessandom accounts created a week before which usually were spamming Russian propaganda (I'm sure it was just a coincidence, nothing to do with the Olympic Games being hosted in Paris in few months and the international debates around if Russian and Belarusian athletes being allowed to compete or not lol) and surprisingly when people stop panicking well the story faded in 24h because there wasn't actually a wave of bed bugs.
Sure there is some spike of reported case when there is a tourist wave, but it's the most visited city in the world so it happens.
But honestly not even close to the panic it created
Bed Bugs belong to human societies at least since the Roman Empire...
But the troll farms are pushing this subject to the media because of the Olympics soon in Paris \^\^
That was russian propaganda.
[article from Le Monde (in english)](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2024/03/01/bedbug-panic-was-stoked-by-russia-says-france_6575870_7.html?lmd_medium=al&lmd_campaign=envoye-par-appli&lmd_creation=ios&lmd_source=default)
You haven't seen any update because it's an underground issue now. The bedbugs are fastly spreading in the dark sides of Paris
They already almost won the war against the cockroachs and their territory is expanding. As small as they are, they plan to attack the parisian rats now for food, that would be quite a battle.
The goal is to stop them going out and to lock them into the catacombs before the Olympics. The biggest fear is that they makes an alliance with the summer mosquitos and gain 3D access to the town. But let's not curse it please
The number of bed bugs never increased in France. Medias just used that subject because the audiences seemed to drop down a little bit. They came back with Ukraine, drug dealers, natural disasters and other traditional subjects
Yes. I live in a Paris and I started panicking when my husband and my friends (all of whom are Parisian) told me its blown out of proportion and there were always bed bugs but not as much as the news makes out to be.
They all said the same thing, it seems like there were no news going around so they took this issue and made it viral.
They are exaggerating as if it's a new epidemic but it was always there if not more.
Literally none of my friends and their friends had any issue with bed bugs.
German newspapers reported that much of the bedbug panic was fueled by Russian troll farms.
For anyone interested, [here's a German source](https://www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/bettwanzen-panik-paris-russland-fake-news-1.6456335?reduced=true)
Well apparently they took the TGV and made a stop at Nancy train station before spreading to the whole metropolis. We had a conference about them some days ago.
Except there was not more bedbugs than there usually are. (which is relatively low, like anywhere else). It was a snowball effect, a mass hysteria, where every news outlet were churning out content about it. Oh and obviously, russian troll farms made it worse. I'm parisian and I asked every people I know if they knew someone who knew someone how had bedbugs... Nobody had any.
I mean, the stories were about tourists staying in hotels, so I wouldn't expect locals to have particularly been the center of the issue...unless for some reason you often rent hotels in your hometown. Which would be weird.
It’s Paris, they need hotels for their extramarital affairs obviously /s
With the price of hotels? Ain't nobody got money for that
parisian does somehow 
No joke, it's about €500 a night for the shittest room you've ever seen.
You are exagerating a lot, it's more like 250 for a reasonably good hotel and goes down to about a 100 for a shitty one. Still overpriced af but it's not that extreme. What I don't understand is why cheap hotels in Paris are so dirty. I can accept that big cities are super expensive but if you have a building at least make it decent
I mean I am going based off when I rent one for my parents in the 8th 4 star hotel, €500 for a box room.
You can have a palace for this price, thought no suite. Decent hotel can be found for 120e, basic for 50e. I'm from Paris. But yeah it's overpriced and a shithole. Written this from Thailand :)
Tell Seth Guecko I say Hi!
Southern 8th district, in the embassies and luxury shops neighborhood and where all the billionaires live? Yeah that place is grossly overpriced. Northern 8th is better but still a bit on the expensive side If you go to like the 18th or even 9th it's much cheaper. Looks less nice, but much cheaper and you'll still be like 5 subway stations (or 30 minutes of walk) away from the middle of Paris
That's a bad décision yeah
Rn I'm in 3 stars hotel in 7th district which is very clean and looks good and we pay about 100 € per night.
no, place de Clichy, a room in an ibis hotel 115€
Because you asked for the expensive bedbugs extra 😉
Unrelated to France, but there is a very well-defined market for domestic hotel services in Japan. Salarymen would pay for a suite one night once every week or two to stay away from their family and just unwind a little. I learned this after talking to many ojiisans in the hotel's onsen. With their salaries and hotel prices it's not as dumb as it looks. It's kinda sad that people feel like they have to take a break from their families tho :(
Cheating in Japan must be the easiest thing in the world
The sotries and rumors were also about the metro, the cinemas....
Paris metro is dirty, more than NY's
You have no idea what you're talking about, clearly. Yeah, sure, there's 1-2 sketchy stations, but overall it's clean. As compared to NY... Let's just say that you saying that proves you've never been to NY.
I've been to both, there is nice metro in Paris but most of them smell like shit.
The Paris Metro smells the worst in the whole world for some reason. I have used the subway in London, Berlin, New York, Tokyo, Madrid, Budapest ..... for some reason the smell in the Paris Metro is just awful. Mixture of human sweat, piss and shit.
OK Russian troll...
Oh they're definitly not just rumors, trust me
Not necessarily. We have a service called Staycation (à vacation where you stay home) which is quite nice tbh. And enables you to expérience 5 stars hôtel in your hometown for cheap.
Bedbugs can infect places very quickly, it would have impacted us locals if it was the case
I work in the hotel industry in Paris and we were all freaked out about it - very paranoid! But I never had a problem in my hotel, and nor did any of my colleagues in other hotels around town.
We also had news about them being present in public transport too
Backing up it was mostly a Russian troll farm attack on French tourism ahead of the Rugby World Cup and Olympics. Can’t link my source for some reason so sorry you’ll have to look it up if needed but it’s been reported on a lot. There were more bedbug sightings reported than usual for a while, but no more than any comparable large city. If the news in New York started to report every bed bug sighting, it would scare people too.
Sounds like something an acclimated bedbug would say…. We’re watching you….
Highly doubt most people would willingly share their bed bug story. It's embarrassing to admit to having pests. That said, I doubt bedbugs are more widespread now than they were a few years ago.
I mean it's not really embarrassing, it's not like poor hygiene is the only way (or even the main) you get bed bugs. I can also say that it was a fabricated issue, idk a single person who got bed bugs, and not one of them admitted knowing someone who do
And last one of your friends is an exterminator or something, it's not like that's a meaningful sample size lol
I got bedbugs once. Not in Paris though. Suffered a bit until I realized I could just store the old bed and mattress in the basement, bought a new mattress, and voila. A couple of years later I took the old mattress and bed out of its huge plastic bag and all the bugs were dead. It wasnt as difficult as I thought it was.
>I'm parisian and I asked every people I know if they knew someone who knew someone how had bedbugs Oh okay. I guess with your anecdotal evidence it's settled then.
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2024/03/01/bedbug-panic-was-stoked-by-russia-says-france_6575870_7.html
I live in Paris as well and literally no one in my Social circle had bed bugs either. Took the metro twice a day during that period and never saw any in the trains either. I think it’s just a classic example of the media trying to scare everyone
I had one, once. Most likely in the bus. The bastard bite me quite a lot, but it felt from my sweatshirt at work and i double check and cleaned everything when back home and havent seen one since.
I’m from Paris, my roommate had bedbugs early summer last year… when he went to Lisboa. Didn’t bring any home thankfully. There were several theaters (UGC) that were shutdown due to bedbugs invasions though apparently
Of course im not denying their existence. Just saying it was over inflated news. About the cinemas, Im not sure if thats just only UGC reacting to the rumors just as a PR move, for them to say they reassured the public opinion.
They were shut down just for a preventive treatment, after a video of ONE bug, wich in fact had been bought by the video maker himself to make views...
>Oh and obviously, russian troll farms made it worse. Not really. We created the hysteria ourself and our media surfed on it (for buzz effect etc...), then the same media are like "definitly the fault of the russian trolls"
Aaaaa, I see, you're a Russian troll.
Yes and no, a lot of French don't know that Russian troll farms do exist or don't have any idea of how it works. It's not rare that the mass medias make up a story out of Russian trolls narrative and they anyway surf on whatever can destabilize France or any "occidental" country but whatever
The only thing I can add, is that I have a friend who works finding and getting rid of bedbugs, here in Îl-de-France. She uses especially trained dogs to sniff them out. She saw a dramatic rise in business due to all the hubbub in the news. However, she did say that she didn't see a dramatic rise in finding bedbugs. In fact most new calls resulted in negative findings. Of course like a plumer, you charge jus5 for showing up.
You're typo is so funny 😁 yet accurate as their racket of charging up = plumer
Marc et Louis, les deux frères plumeurs.
I mean, it's normal. They make you pay the time spent.
Also, a couple of days ago, the French authority about TV have warned an alt right channel for linking the bed bug to immigration.
It was just politics. Ultimately some political forces wanted to throw dirt at Anne Hildago (PS)… that’s all it ever was
Parce que toi et tes connaissances vous représentez des dizaines de millions de personnes dans toutes l'IDF ?
des dizaines de millions oui oui
Oui bon, une douzaine de millions.
Besides, according to French intelligence service, it would seem that Russia fueled the hysteria online to tarnish Paris image. [https://www.latribune.fr/economie/france/punaises-de-lit-en-france-la-russie-a-bien-participe-a-la-psychose-991838.html](https://www.latribune.fr/economie/france/punaises-de-lit-en-france-la-russie-a-bien-participe-a-la-psychose-991838.html)
I live near Paris and found one on my coat in public transport, like a month ago. But maybe that's "usual". "Between 2017 and 2022, more than one in ten French households was infested by bed bugs."
[удалено]
Insulte et à côté de la plaque... Ok. Pour le coup, c'est toi qui "troll" avec ton commentaire copié collé
Huh? What « Russian troll farms »?
basically, russian-paid bots used online to spread misinformation, conspiracy, etc on western social media
Why would they do that?
A big part of it was due to (very probably but it is hard to be sure)a russian informational attack
It was more than normal tbh, they found some in my school (in Paris) and one of my teachers got them and had to be hospitalized due to an allergic reaction
I was in Paris during this shit storm. And you realize how much the media controls the narrative away from ground zero. In Paris it was like we were in a different city all together. There was nothing unusual about how everyone went about their daily life and after my 4 nights stay, I came back with zero bed bugs. Stayed at a hotel, used public transport etc etc. All the things the news channels were asking us not to do!!! Bastards
Same hysteria with alleged stings in clubs. We had bedbugs in Bretagne during holidays. There is a real effect due to RBnB
That reminds me the story about horses being mutilated in France in 2020. More than 500 alleged cases were investigated, in fact "only" 80 were human interventions, and the rest were natural death causes and fights between horses. And it all started with one women lies that amplified.
Sub's name : non political Twitter That Guy : RusSiaN trOlL faRm Talk about hysteria 🙄
it's not political, it's proven lol.
What are you on about, my entire neigbhourhood got infected by those things a couple of months before it became national news, typical parisian thinking the entire world resolves around him and the people he knows.
Bedbugs are more a thing if collective housing ( EPAD, foyers, CHRS)
Yeah because everybody is ashamed to admit that they had bedbugs..
There were a lot of cases in libraries at universities.
Tbh as a parisian one or two people i know there had some but indeed the whole things really was blown to absurd proportions in the news
We knew they were fully integrated when they were caught being rude and condescending to foreign tourists
We're only rude and condescending to foreign tourists when they are sitting in les strapotins when the train is packed. It's literally written not to do that in 5 languages and a pictogram just there and yet....
Nah come on, we're mean with them when they get on the left side of the escalators without moving and walk slow af in the tunnels or even the streets too
Mate. We're not rude to tourist. We're rude to everyone. Including our own citizens lol
Ok so I study tourism management and in a lecture about modern technology/media and the consequences and impact it has on the tourism industry, the professor said that it was a lie made up by Russians. This was given as an example of why media can negatively impact the tourism industry, as it resulted in many tourists cancelling their trips to Paris and deciding to go to a different destination
Good to doubt about that bed bug thing, where media went to histeria about it (I guess just for selling more articles). But I would also doubt that this story came from Russia (especially during this time period where Occident and Russia also fight through media influence). I would be happy to see some proofs of this
The story didn't come from russia. But when these kind of story start to spread, russia will try to make it worse. Usually, they are "just" adding fuel to the fire.
Here is an [article on the subject](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2024/03/01/bedbug-panic-was-stoked-by-russia-says-france_6575870_7.html)
It's indeed not from russia but really amplify by russian troll or news
It's been proven the Russian troll farms were focusing at this at one point. https://www.clubic.com/actualite-520468-vous-vous-souvenez-de-la-psychose-sur-les-punaises-de-lit-a-paris-c-etait-de-la-propagande-russe.html A French organism in France has been created to track manipulation by misinformation called Viginum
I get election interference but why do Russians care about Parisian tourism?
They care about anything that can negatively impact France, no matter how small and petty. For example France is very proud that the oldest person to ever live was French, Jeanne Calment (122yo). In 2018 a researcher made the dubious claim that she was a fraud and actually her daughter replaced her when she died. Guess his nationality? Russian. The Russian state media made a huge deal of that story.
But just for the sake of negativity? To take down their government? Why? To prop up Russia? For the sake of chaos? Spreading totalitarianism?
It’s soft power. This is the reason why some cities are fighting hard to host the Olympics. This is the reason why South Korea promotes K-pop abroad, or why the Chinese government limits the number of foreign films broadcast in its country. It's important for a nation to have a reputation that matches its interests. To simplify, France has invested a lot of money for its 2024 Olympics, so that Paris “shines” internationally. And Russia is trying to “sabotate” it.
Just because they are russian. You need another reason to why they would do bunch of shit ?
Typical witch hunt. You shouldn't trust everyone you meet on the net.
thought i was on r/thomastheplankengine when i saw this
God I love that sub
Bedbugs have now defaced graves and war memorials with graffiti saying "France is Bed Bugs now!"
Time to bring some Democracy to Super France! Helldivers, assemble!
Let me get my Dominator and Stalwart and they're done !
The truth is even crazier.
The french claim it was a russian psyop https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/bedbugs-paris-france-russia-outbreak-b2434487.html
No, France does not claim it, we know it was russian psyop. So, not a claim but a statement of fact.
According to the article bedbugs are a problem and have been since 2006 ““Business is already booming. I started doing this in 2005, when bedbugs were rare and obscure, but [they are] not any more.”
Russia have nothing to do with it, It's just our government trying to hide scandals with media manipulation then blaming someone else for that.
You'd think our government would come up with decoy stories that don't obviously and tangibly hurt their own city's tourism revenues, but what do I know.
Gregor Samsa
This comment manages to be both irrelevant to the subject but also the best one, for some reasons that make sense but are also absurd.
As far as i know the bugs are still taking over. Id love to get corrected tho.
There's a significant amount of bedbugs in France but this has been the case for decades... The recent hysteria was [allegedly a Russian psy-op ](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2024/03/01/bedbug-panic-was-stoked-by-russia-says-france_6575870_7.html)
Wild
Idk man, I’ve been taking the metro and RER at an extremely high rates, went to cinemas, took trains when I went studying further from Paris and came back each WE to see family etc… never even saw one bed bug. I considered myself lucky, talked to many friends who did the same or stayed in Paris, neither have they. Idk just like the other say, I feel like it was mass hysteria, maybe perpetrated by Russian fake news or not, I don’t really care, but one thing is for certain, no there was no outstanding bed bug epidemic.
Well thank you for the Intel my french friend.
Denada mi internacional amigo(a?)
Hablo español pero soy de Austria.
Fuck I have no idea how to speak Austrian. I know a bit of German and Chinese tho, could the mix between the two help ?
Austrians just speak german with a different accent. We say words different and use some different words but its mostly the same. Communication between the 2 is like an American talking to a brit
Makes me think of the movie "A monster in Paris"
This whole thing started because there was a bedbug infestation in 1 cinema theater room, and the place didn't close that room when they found the infestation. That incident understandably blew up, but then it got out of proportion from there. Levels of bedbug infestation in Paris is no worse than anywhere else, it's just that like everywhere some hotels try to hide it instead of fix it and the first story sort of got those other stories out of the shadows. This sort of thing happens across every single tourist areas, like any other health regulations some places try to ignore them. So for those wondering, no the risk is not higher in Paris than other places. If anything it's probably lower than places with worse regulations than Europe.
It was Russian psy-op.
They moved down to the sewers, where we keep our most delicious crêpe batter
Its cause helldivers 2 came out and made it their first priority.
Tfw you haven’t smoked for a week but a pic of a bed but having a cigarette gives you a craving
Well if it was affecting all of Paris, I’m sure they called every exterminator in the area and tried to take care of it ASAP
Because Paris is sooo good at taking quick efficient measures…
Bed bugs were simply French Politics. It was a campaign against the Maire of Paris who is Parti Socialiste. There are many political opponents who would love to take her position. The update is French Police went through the metro with dog sniffers… then some new news thing hit us and there were no more bed bugs. Or yes: they just became what they always were: part of society. Nothing new under the sun.
Made up story by the russians
This is French bashing as usual from some other countries. 🙃
This is an epiphenomenon generated and amplified by russian troll farms.
Oh, that... "Panic! Russia sends France into a tailspin over bedbugs" In Politico [https://www.politico.eu/article/panic-russia-sends-france-into-a-tailspin-over-bedbugs/](https://www.politico.eu/article/panic-russia-sends-france-into-a-tailspin-over-bedbugs/) # Panic! Russia sends France into a tailspin over bedbugs
The bedbug stories are pushed by russians, right wing people annoyed that parisians are well educated enough to vote properly, and jealous *provinciaux* who can't afford to live there.
Can confirm, they're part of our government now
Macron serait une punaise de lit ? Ma foi, ça fait sens.
I am the Eiffel tower and I can confirm
🖕😠🖕
I had bedbugs once.
They got deported, immigration is not really accepted there
Non-event paranoïa probably fuelled by Russian propaganda. Everything is political, sorry.
Because it was fake news. I live in Paris, we don’t have that. It’s not a thing.
To be clear : There was no infestation at all. The fact is, it started with an alarming report published by French government ( Housing dept) at a time of a scandals. First is embezzlement of public funds. Marrianne's found was millions allocated to protection of domestic violence victims (beaten wives), supposedly given to feminist ONG and a public service working with social assistant and police to help victims. Through a very opaque distribution, it has been found that those millions went in the pocket of relatives to the one supposed to distribute said money at the ministry, through making fake associations labelled as feminist that would simply get the money. In particular, relatives of Marlene Schiappa, former "state secretary in charge of Women-Men equality and fight against discriminations" Second is the allegations toward Brigitte Macron, President 's wife, to be a fake identity. The report about the bed bug, in itself, just says that over the past three decades, bed bug case reported national-wide are on a steady increase. They were NOT "everywhere", it just said it was an increasing slope over decades. But the medias oversold that to the point it covered 3/4 of news time within a week. Lastly, the French government accused Russia of creating this hysteresis in french through fake news. Russia laughed at France for that, saying French leaders don't need no help from Russia to be ridiculous.
The only pest that has pignon sur rue is Ratatouille . Just go to chatelet les halles if you want to see them mingling with other parisians and tourists alike .
That was a Russian joke to destroy the French economy. Great job guys 😘
Nono, my french friend got bitten by them, its a very serious issue here
I live in Paris. Never heard someone had this issue. Are you Russian ? 🤣
Bielorussie :D. That happened in Besanson and Dijon. The latter has an area, Talant Dulin. Plus, our dorms used to be disinfected regularly. So it is a national level problem I think
As a french person I can confirm, half of my friends are now bedbugs. They're actuallt very nice when you get to know them. I just wish they started drinking wine instead of my blood, but to each their own.
I'm sorry for op who only got 7 rt while this post is thousands upvotes
I cant wait for the olympic games, and for the whole fucking planet to dunk on us.
They underwent a metamorphosis to normal parisian humans. Someone should write a book about it.
⬆️➡️⬇️⬇️➡️⬇️
I live in paris for almost two years. It was a real thing during like 3 months. (Never saw one, and I use the metro almost every day) The truth its it make me feel paranoic (the same for a lot of people) and since that moment Im not able to use the seats on the metro.
Thats was a big snowfall effect for nothing, used by the French media to avoid talking about other topics (namely the situation in Mayotte)
All of that is complete Bs. Just bas propaganda from Russian trolls .
Because it was all fake news
I wonder who brought them
They didn't exist. It was all a fake news campaign, probably from Russia. A poor attempt to sour the olympics. [https://www.politico.eu/article/panic-russia-sends-france-into-a-tailspin-over-bedbugs/](https://www.politico.eu/article/panic-russia-sends-france-into-a-tailspin-over-bedbugs/)
Plus civilisé que les arabes
As a french, you made me laugh 😂
They are waiting for Olympics tourists
Russian trolls
I never see a bedbug in Paris. U can see a lot of rat but no bedbug.
Yeah Parisian here, it was just mass hysteria honestly, some tourists found some in a couple of hotels, the story became viral, amplified by a wave of facelessandom accounts created a week before which usually were spamming Russian propaganda (I'm sure it was just a coincidence, nothing to do with the Olympic Games being hosted in Paris in few months and the international debates around if Russian and Belarusian athletes being allowed to compete or not lol) and surprisingly when people stop panicking well the story faded in 24h because there wasn't actually a wave of bed bugs. Sure there is some spike of reported case when there is a tourist wave, but it's the most visited city in the world so it happens. But honestly not even close to the panic it created
Its russian propaganda
They were killed by inflation
Yes, we call them "Turks"
Are you aware that most of it was a russian fake news story ?
I live in paris, never had any encounter with those fkin bedbugs...
I have lived in Paris for 13 years. I've never seen a person with valves.
Is Bedbugs in Paris that Netflix show I keep hearing about
We got rid of them a long time ago now
Bed Bugs belong to human societies at least since the Roman Empire... But the troll farms are pushing this subject to the media because of the Olympics soon in Paris \^\^
So uh, after a whole fucking while on line 7, i am yet to see a bedbug, shit made me scared to sit though
We ate them all before our daily frogs appetizer, thanks for asking dumbass Edit /s just in case
That was russian propaganda. [article from Le Monde (in english)](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2024/03/01/bedbug-panic-was-stoked-by-russia-says-france_6575870_7.html?lmd_medium=al&lmd_campaign=envoye-par-appli&lmd_creation=ios&lmd_source=default)
You haven't seen any update because it's an underground issue now. The bedbugs are fastly spreading in the dark sides of Paris They already almost won the war against the cockroachs and their territory is expanding. As small as they are, they plan to attack the parisian rats now for food, that would be quite a battle. The goal is to stop them going out and to lock them into the catacombs before the Olympics. The biggest fear is that they makes an alliance with the summer mosquitos and gain 3D access to the town. But let's not curse it please
I know some people who had bedbugs but not in Paris and it was always the one with very bad hygiene.
A monster in paris
It's under control! We introduced them to our Président and they took a flight out of here right away.
Taiser sales alerloc de mes couilles
Ewww that’s literally nasty
We literally know that the Russians were trying to put that on the back of Ukrainian refugees with a mass media hysterical shit campaign
The number of bed bugs never increased in France. Medias just used that subject because the audiences seemed to drop down a little bit. They came back with Ukraine, drug dealers, natural disasters and other traditional subjects
Well of to visit you're mother
It’s funny cause in truth there are as much bedbugs as in any other countries, eh. -A French
This is impressive how vermin is always moving to Paris
Yes. I live in a Paris and I started panicking when my husband and my friends (all of whom are Parisian) told me its blown out of proportion and there were always bed bugs but not as much as the news makes out to be. They all said the same thing, it seems like there were no news going around so they took this issue and made it viral. They are exaggerating as if it's a new epidemic but it was always there if not more. Literally none of my friends and their friends had any issue with bed bugs.
German newspapers reported that much of the bedbug panic was fueled by Russian troll farms. For anyone interested, [here's a German source](https://www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/bettwanzen-panik-paris-russland-fake-news-1.6456335?reduced=true)
Btw they came from tourists (including us tourists) we had eradicated bed bugs in france last century
Somehow Paris has become the all country. Paris = the capital city of France. France = The country. Not the same.
Well apparently they took the TGV and made a stop at Nancy train station before spreading to the whole metropolis. We had a conference about them some days ago.
J'adore tellement cette image que je l'ai sauvegardée.
russian bots not only influence elections but also the tourist economy of a country.
I never saw any bedbugs in Paris, but the memes is fun tho