Bed bugs: what do they look like and where do they come from?

Mélanie Gomez / Photo credits: ANTOINE BOUREAU / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 07:30, 02 October 2023

They are everywhere. In our mattresses, behind our tapestries, in our skirting boards... And they have recently been found in our hospitals, cinemas and public transport. Faced with the proliferation of bed bugs, anxiety is rising a notch among the French. How do you catch these pests and how do you know you have them at home? Is there a risk to our health? Europe 1 takes stock.

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Five millimetres, oval and flat

The first thing to know: bed bugs have nothing to do with a lack of hygiene. As proof, the main place where we risk crossing paths are hotels, including 5-star hotels where they were detected at the first reports in New York for example.

You can also find them on second-hand furniture, salvaged from flea markets, on public roads or at auction. A word of advice: always check that they are not contaminated. Bed bugs are visible to the naked eye. They measure five millimeters, are oval, flat and their color ranges from red to dark brown.

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Buttons aligned

If it's too late to confirm the invasion in your home, the first clue to whether you have any in your home will come when you wake up. "We have buttons at the parts that are not protected by the pajamas, legs, arms, face ... They are like mosquito pimples, but they are aligned," says Dr. Arezki Isri, parasitologist and medical entomologist at the Avicenna Hospital in Bobigny.

"When we have these pimples, we will look in bed and what we will see most often will be stains of droppings of bedbugs. Small black spots that look like mold," he continues. From that moment on, the fight begins. If the presence of bedbugs can lead to sleep disorders or anxiety, they do not transmit any disease to humans.