2023-10-15 08:42:58
There is a bed bug alert in France. But this parasite, a “very invasive and difficult to eradicate pest”, also exists in Italy. But how do you find them, avoid them or eliminate them? The favorite place of these bedbugs is suitcases. This is how we very often return home with entire families of little clandestine guests on board.
The experts from the ATS of the Milan metropolitan city offer some advice to reduce the risks and prevent the worst: that is, the bloodsucker from settling in the home. Because “at that point – Maira Bonini, director of the complex structure of Hygiene and Public Health, and Vincenzo Celeste, technical operator of the same structure, specify to time.news Salute – there is a need for highly specialized personnel who intervene with specific methodologies for the elimination and resolution of the problem”.
How to avoid them
The first suggested precaution is to bag your suitcases. “When you arrive at the airport, for example, there are ad hoc services and you can arrange to wrap them well in cellophane”, explains Celeste. Then, once you reach your destination – traveling well covered, experts indicate – the invitation is to keep your eyes open. “If you go on holiday to a city with ongoing or frequent infestations, it is best to be alert – recommends Bonini – and check”, starting with the hotel or accommodation facility where you are staying. “One piece of advice – he continues – is to leave your clothes in a plastic bag when placing them in wardrobes and drawers”, choosing to place them, adds Celeste, “on high shelves and well spaced from the floor. Before leaving, it is a good idea always check if there are traces of the pest”.
If you pay attention, in fact, “it is a clearly visible phenomenon – highlights Celeste – The presence of the adult pest can be detected, but the suitcases can also be vectors with the presence of eggs which then hatch” in the places where it was deposited the suitcase. The adult bed bug measures “around 5 millimetres, while the eggs are around 1 or 1.5 millimetres”.
How to eliminate them
If a person is ‘hit’, “he/she will be able to notice the presence of simultaneous bites”, indicated by red spots, “which can be in clusters” because the insect “breaks off after a few centimeters and reattaches somewhere else “. Another piece of advice concerns means of transport. “I suggest – says Bonini – to use covering clothing when travelling, which protects more when going for example on public transport such as the metro and other means of transport”, trains, buses and so on. “Even in summer it is best in these situations not to leave too much body surface exposed.” On board it is advisable to take a look at the armrests and seats.
And when you return home? “The ideal – concludes Celeste – would be to let the suitcases ‘decant’ a bit in the garage”, therefore outside the rooms of the house. A sort of ‘quarantine’. “And perhaps remove the cellophane the next day. Then carefully check the suitcase to see if there is evidence of the presence of this pest, therefore the adult walking bedbug or the eggs. Then wash the clothes in the washing machine at 60 degrees and, before store suitcases in the storage room (in plastic bags), give a spray of insecticide spray”.
“In Italy, from our data, there are no indications of a growth in bed bug infestations, as is happening in France. We have not had an increase in reports or samples analyzed. But it is also true that it is a problem widespread that exterminators know well. And if they are called to intervene, they resolve quickly, without receiving a report. However, it is a known problem: there are cases in our country, as always, but we don’t see any peaks.” Fabrizio Montarsi, biologist and entomologist from the Laboratory of Parasitology, Mycology and Entomology of the Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of Venice (IzsVe), told time.news Salute regarding the alarm over the growth of infestations beyond the Alps.
In Italy no alarm
“In Italy, from our data, there are no indications of a growth in bed bug infestations, as is happening in France. We have not had an increase in reports or samples analyzed. But it is also true that it is a problem widespread that the exterminators know well. And if they are called to intervene, they resolve quickly, without receiving a report. However, it is a known problem: there are cases in our country, as always, but we don’t see any peaks”, he stated at ‘time.news Health Fabrizio Montarsi, biologist and entomologist of the Laboratory of parasitology, mycology and entomology of the Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of Venice (IzsVe), regarding the alarm over the growth of infestations beyond the Alps.
“Bed bugs spread because they are brought by travelers who calmly use different types of hotels, perhaps moving from a 4-star hotel to a hostel with less than top hygiene conditions. Today this type of travel is even more widespread than in the past”, underlines the expert who excludes the influence of climate change also because these are insects “that live inside homes, where the climate is more controlled. What influences the increase most is globalization, the possibility of move quickly and in hygienically diversified places”.
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