I’m planning a trip to Paris in the spring, so a few weeks ago, when everyone was talking about a bed bug outbreak during Paris Fashion Week, I started to panic. Did I really want to lug my suitcase into a hotel knowing I might bring back a collection of blood-sucking bed bugs? Ick.
Turns out bed bugs are just as likely to wander into my house in Toronto. According to University of British Columbia entomologist Yasmin Akhtar, they’re pretty much everywhere in big Canadian cities: on subway seats, in the second-hand items we purchase online, and even in public library books. She says we’ve been suffering from an outbreak for two decades, since bed bugs began developing resistance to insecticides, but that the spread slowed down during the COVID years. Now that we’re back to travelling and hanging out in each other’s homes, we’re noticing more infestations.
Is there anything you can do to avoid inviting them into your home? Akhtar offers some practical advice in her Q&A with Maclean’s. Don’t lay your clothes down on your bed, she says, after you’ve returned home from being out and about. Wash stuff you get from thrift stores right away. Be really careful with items you buy off Facebook Marketplace. And when you travel, keep your luggage away from your bed and inspect it when you get home. Advice I’ll definitely use this spring in Paris.
—Sarah Fulford, editor-in-chief