A Qantas Boeing 787 Dreamliner was grounded over the weekend, resulting in the cancellation of a return flight, after passengers reported being bitten by bedbugs during a 17-hour journey from Perth to Rome. Italian media reports indicated that cabin crew distributed antihistamines to passengers to treat itching as the bites began occurring while the aircraft was in flight.
Upon landing at Fiumicino airport, staff confirmed the presence of the blood-sucking insects on the plane. A Qantas spokesperson issued a statement offering a sincere apology to customers for the cancellation of the Saturday Rome-Perth flight. The airline stated that the grounding allowed engineers and staff to perform a deep clean of the aircraft after a problem was identified on a small number of economy class seats.
According to the IZSVe, bedbug bites typically manifest as itchy marks between two and five millimetres in size, often appearing in a line, and usually clear up within about a week. The incident has revived memories of concerns regarding bedbug infestations in Europe during the autumn of 2023, which followed reports of a widespread problem in Paris. However, both the IZSVe and the national pest control association, Anid, maintain that Italy has not experienced a surge in bedbug reports and does not currently face a specific issue with the insects. As IZSVe biologist Fabrizio Montarsi noted to the newspaper Il Post at the time, while there is a chance of encountering them in Italian cities, they remain less common than flies or mosquitoes and the problem is considered limited.
Pest control companies in Italy report that their current methods are effective, with most firms having moved away from traditional insecticides in favor of steam treatments reaching up to 180C, which are capable of killing both the insects and their eggs.
