An epidemic of parasitic bedbugs is being reported from Madrid and other parts of the country.
The huge rise in infestations across the country has gone up by 70% in the last five years. Pest control experts say the problem is now bordering on an “epidemic”.
Bedbugs burrow deep inside mattresses, but crawl out to bite humans and feed on blood.
Housing authorities in Madrid are complaining of “a plague of bedbugs” and called for extra measures to tackle the testy problem. They have received a surge of calls from people asking for their contaminated mattresses to be collected and for temporary accommodation while their homes are fumigated.
Victims often put the blame on squatters or on mass tourism.
Spain’s Pest Control Association warned that bedbug infestations are “very difficult to control and spread very easily”.
It said that “they can occur anywhere, even the most luxurious hotel. Their presence is not linked to poor sanitary conditions but to the movement of people.”
Bedbugs have been human parasites for thousands of years, but were considered nearly extinct in western Europe and the developed world since the 1940s. A marked return began around 1995.
