A bedbug was crushed by an SNCF controller after being discovered by a traveler. The dreaded bug traveled on Friday, October 6th, between Paris and La Rochelle, arriving at 16:21. However, the bug did not leave carriage number 11 of the TGV Inoui number 8361. It was crushed by a controller who was called as a witness by the traveler, whom we will call Pierre, and who recounted the situation to Le Figaro.
Pierre spotted the bug on his tablet. He had doubts about its identification, so he called the controller, who knew little about it. As a precaution, the controller squashed the bug, which was full of blood. It appeared to have just finished a meal. Pierre, known to the author of this article, sent several photos to Le Figaro as evidence. They were examined by Professor Pascal Delaunay, a parasitologist and medical entomologist at the University Hospital of Nice. “It’s a bedbug,” he confirmed, “at stage 1 or 2, full of blood.”
“It’s a small bedbug,” adds Pascal Delaunay. “In this case, it is best to change clothes completely as a precaution before returning home and carefully ironing your belongings or subjecting them to a heating cycle of 60 degrees Celsius or higher.” Pierre followed these instructions.
While the presence of bedbugs in public transportation has been documented in recent weeks, Minister of Transportation Clément Beaune reassured the public, stating that there is “no resurgence.” “Confirmed cases are extremely rare, and there is no recent evidence of a resurgence of bedbugs in trains,” the SNCF also confirms.
