Tiger mosquitoes, Asian mosquitoes and bedbugs: What climate change means for ‘European nuisances’ plaguing Paris Olympics

The culprit was the Brazilian Wandering Spider, an 11cm black and red arachnid with a bite that causes convulsions, hypothermia, death and—if you’re a persuasive male—a very painful case of uncontrollable erection. You can imagine the shock.

The store was closed to disinfect, and the spider fled, never to be heard from again. But it’s not the only creepy crawly attack to make its way into European tabloids lately.

France has earned itself a bad pre-Olympic reputation for its bed bug infestation, with Paris deputy mayor Emmanuel Grégoire warning people that “no one is safe. You can catch them anywhere,” and reports of bloodsuckers on Eurostar causing panic in London.

Tiger mosquitoes, which can carry Dengue and Zika, have also been seen across the country, leading Paris authorities to bring in insect ‘detectives’ to track their breeding grounds.

The Turkish pharmaceutical industry, on the other hand, is eyeing Europe widely as an exciting new export market for scorpion antivenom.

Is climate change to blame for this apparent arthropod invasion?

The reality is less apocalyptic than the headlines suggest, says Dr Matt Green, chief entomologist at UK-based global pest control company Rentokil Initial, which operates across the continent.

We are not even close to having Dengue spread. Reports of bedbugs in France have skyrocketed because people have seen the alarming headlines and started looking under their mattresses. And if we usually see more invasive species it is not usually due to rising temperatures.

“I am often asked how climate change affects our business. Well, given that people have already moved all the major pests to every state, and certainly to every major population center, not as much as you might think,” Green said. Good luck.

The good news is that those worried about bumping into Brazil’s wandering spiders can relax.

Many species need more than just an increase in temperature to make a home in a new and very different environment. For example, the docks of Sheerness near London have had a population of 10,000 yellow scorpions for centuries, as merchant ships brought them from mainland Europe, but these harmless critters have not spread because the conditions are not ideal.

What climate change is doing to Europeans are insects

This does not mean that climate change is not affecting the profile of European insects.

Termites—a long-standing problem in Mediterranean countries—are moving into Northern Europe with rising temperatures, although the lack of wooden buildings means they are unlikely to cause widespread economic damage there.

Aedes mosquitoes—a species that includes tiger mosquitoes—thrives well in Italy, and to get there in France, which means countries like Switzerland are unlikely to survive.

“Europe is now realizing how climate change is creating better conditions for invasive mosquitoes to spread to areas that were not affected,” the director of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Andrea Ammon, told the BBC.

Fortunately, these are not the species that carry malaria—that’s it Anopheleswhich may have spread in Europe due to the absence of much standing water—in contrast Aedes– needs to give birth.

Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The same cannot be said for Asian hornets, depending on where you live, they may come picnicking near you. “They come through France quite easily, and there have been cases of them diving in the UK, which means we may have them now, so make peace with that,” Green said.

Then there are the bugs. Even before the latest operation, the attacks were costing the French economy 230 million euros ($246 million) a year, according to health agency Anses. Callouts can set hotels back thousands of dollars in treatment and lost revenue, and can cause confusion and panic over the Paris Olympics.

Nathan Laine/Bloomberg via Getty Images

These six-legged vampires may have been around for a long time, but they like warm weather.

“When the temperature in your house is between 25 to 26 degrees Celsius (77 to 78.8 Fahrenheit), it only takes five days for bed bug eggs to hatch. In normal conditions, when the temperature is around 20 degrees Celsius, it takes 10 days,” said entomologist with the National Institute for the Study and Fight Against Bedbugs Jean-Michel Bérenger told. It has strings during the height of panic last year

How European pests are changing in addition to climate change

Whether we’re helped by rising temperatures or not, the insects we’re likely to see the most are those that are better adapted to humans and our behavior—and it’s our behavior that helps them spread.

In rural areas this is often done through monoculture agriculture, although sometimes all that is needed is to import non-native plants.

The processionary oak moth—a species found in Southern Europe, which damages forests and produces hairs that can irritate the skin, eyes and airways—established itself in the UK in the 2000s, when oak was shipped in from Europe. Ironically, it happened near the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew, where authorities monitor such things.

Stefan Puchner/photo alliance via Getty Images

Urban insects you might notice, however.

Mice, rats, cockroaches and the like all share traits that make them fit to live in close proximity to humans, whether we want them to or not. They are small, able to crawl in tight spaces, usually dark and nocturnal, making them difficult to spot. Importantly, they are also omnivorous.

“They’re very flexible, so they won’t mind a degree or two [change in temperature]. They already live in buildings with air conditioning,” said Rentokil’s Green. “Some of the moths in the warehouses are barely flying these days. It is not necessary. They have just lived in a world full of food, shaken by people. It’s a living hell.”

Sometimes it is a well-intentioned or necessary change in human behavior that helps urban insects proliferate.

Media frenzy aside, bed bugs he did rapidly expanding worldwide at the beginning of the 21st century. In Australia, the increase was between 500% and 4,500%; In New York City, bed bug complaints to the council jumped from 537 in 2004 to 10,985 in 2009, although they have since declined.

Entomologists attribute the resurgence to the end of the era of DDT—the infamous pesticide that decimated insects worldwide during the 20th century, before major environmental and health concerns ended its use, and species became resistant. In effect, we are returning to historical trends from a period of unusually low insect activity.

Don’t expect this to change. While the pest control industry uses advanced monitoring techniques and ‘practical’ interventions, such as bed bug steam cleaners, the shift away from chemical control means we are losing what used to be a powerful weapon against infestations.

The same may happen with rodents, at least in Europe, where regulators take a dim view of the use of anti-inflammatory rodenticides.

This may be for good reasons, but there are pest controllers that are nervous. As one put it on the record, “there’s a whole generation of exterminators that have been trained to put rat poison in food boxes. If you take that away from the market, what are you left with? To quote Alienswhat should we use, harsh language?”

The future

Humanity has driven many species to extinction, mostly unintentionally, and continues to do so. Species that at least some of us would be a little less fond of, however, have proven to be resilient. Almost by definition, insects thrive when we do.

So what can we expect? In Europe, climate change and human activities are unlikely to make dangerous spiders a regular part of grocery shopping, or bring soaring levels of mosquito-borne diseases.

But they will change the number of animals we share with our environment. Familiarize yourself with Aedes and Asian hornets; watch out for rats and bugs.

What may change most, however, is our expectations of what pest control means. With the spray-it-first-ask-questions-later approach firmly entrenched in the history books, exterminating insects at first sight may end up being remembered as a 20th century idea.