If you are travelling to France soon you might want to sleep with one eye open.

New figures published on Wednesday showed that the country is in the grip of a bed bug invasion.

There were some 180,000 bed bug infestations throughout France last year, the CS3D union of pest controllers warned.

And the creepy crawlies seemed to like  gathering in the places where tourists tend to go, said the union.

“They’re in all the places where people might stay for a while,” Stephane Bras, the union’s spokesman told Le Figaro newspaper.

Hotels, hostels, public transport and rental cars were among those suffering from the bed bug invasion.

Also hit were hospitals and theatres.

It is the first time the figure has been calculated for France.

The CS3D said it had arrived at the 180,000 figure after collecting data from its pest controllers around the country.

The bed bug, a parasitic insect that feeds exclusively on blood and are mostly active in the dark hours of night, reported The Local France.