- The sad part is that this is a pretty sensible thing to do.
Nobody likes bed bugs. They’re impossible to eradicate, bloodthirsty, disgusting, and unpleasant in ways we’d prefer not to think about.
That was a bit of an issue for the recent Paris Olympics. You see, the City of Lights is kind of run over with bed bugs.
Now that the games have wrapped up, athletes and spectators alike are returning to their home countries. That, naturally, raises the risk of them bringing Paris’ bed bugs along with them.
That’s not something anyone wants, but South Korea has gone one step further than most.
They’ve deployed an anti-bed bug sniffer dog at the country’s main airport.
You usually see this kind of security reserved for drug smugglers, not biting bugs. Then again, considering how South Korea treats everything bagel seasoning, it’s really not a surprise.
A One of a Kind Pooch
Everybody, meet Ceco. He is a two-year beagle who has been trained to do one thing, and one thing only.
Kill bed bugs.
Well, he finds the bed bugs so that his human coworkers can then kill them, but he’s the instigator.
Ceco is good at his job too. Kim Mun-su from the pest control company Cesco — the puppy’s employer — Ceco can comb through a standard-sized hotel room in two minutes.
If there’s a single bug in there, he will find them.
As such, it’s no surprise that Ceco was hired in mid-August to sniff through the bags of everyone returning from Paris to the Incheon airport. He will remain in his position until September 8, at which point South Korea expects most of the Olympics crowd to have returned home.
However, Ceco isn’t the only measure the East Asian country is taking against bed bugs. For the time being, all planes arriving directly from Paris are getting disinfected once a week instead of the usual monthly treatment.
That makes planes sound pretty gross, actually. Ew.
Additionally, the Incheon airport has ramped up its quarantine procedures. Maintenance staff is ready to lock the place down at a moment’s notice if any bed bugs are detected on an airplane or within the airport.
Yeah, they really don’t want people to bring the bugs over.
Bugs, Bugs Everywhere
Depending on how creeped out you are by bed bugs, you might think the South Korean authorities’ response to potential insect imports is overblown. The sad thing, though, is that they’re really not.
Yeah, it’s kind of bad in Paris.
They might be called bed bugs, but the French creepy crawlies haven’t felt any pressure to act according to their name. In addition to bedrooms and hotels, people have found things crawling all over hospitals, movie theaters, buses, trains…
If it’s in Paris, it probably has bed bugs in it.
Now, we couldn’t blame you if you thought we were exaggerating. This whole situation sounds so nightmarish that it couldn’t possibly be real.
Unfortunately, nightmares are dreams, and sometimes dreams come true. In September 2023, the French movie theater chain UGC Cinemas posted a public apology after people began sharing photos of them getting bitten by bed bugs while watching movies.
What’s more, the city government of Paris acknowledged how horrendous the bed bug situation was before the Olympics. In fact, they begged the national government for help to get rid of the bugs.
“Bed bugs are a public health problem and should be reported as such. The state must urgently bring together all concerned in order to enact an action plan appropriate with this scourge as all of France prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2024,” Paris’ first deputy mayor Emmanuel Grigoire wrote to the government.
That said, there’s precious little anyone could do about the bed bugs. If you’ve ever had the displeasure of dealing with them, you know they’re not going anywhere unless you burn the place down and salt the earth.
And even then, a couple of them will probably crawl out of the ashes. Maybe South Korea has the right idea.