The history of bed bugs in the United States is filled with twists and turns. Before the Second World War, bed bug infestations were fairly common; but at the mid-20th century, pesticides such as DDT proved effective at quashing the pests. DDT was sprayed indiscriminately across the country and, as a result, bed bugs were all but eradicated in the United States for a stretch of the 20th century. However, as researchers cataloged DDT’s detrimental effects on the environment and contribution to the acceleration of resistance to pesticide in insects, the substance was banned. As many other popular pesticides suffered the same fate, and global travel became increasingly common, bed bugs returned in full force to the United States.
Now that the defects of many pesticides have become known, other solutions have risen to prominence in handling pests. Bed bugs in particular are susceptible to an exciting, cutting-edge detection tactic, which makes exterminating bed bugs an easier and more painless task than ever! Bed Bug Solutions is happy to employ the use of bed bug-sniffing dogs, a technique the New York Times, in a 2010 article, described as “adorable yet stunningly accurate.”
The New York Times article reports that bed bug sniffing dogs can have a 96% detection rate, but Bed Bug Solutions’ Leroy has that figure beaten, at 97%! Human checks, of course, are much less efficient—it may take hours to visually inspect a room, and humans have a sense of smell that cannot compare to those of dogs.
The article mentions one of the earlier strongholds of bed bug dog sniffing training—J&K Canine Academy in High Springs, Fla. This dog school has trained the animals to sniff out everything from bedbugs and termites to bombs and some forms of cancer. (This is a further testament to the powerful and versatile noses of dogs!)
This brings us to Leroy, a purebred beagle and tried and true bed bug sniffing veteran! Leroy is trained by the renowned National Entomology Scent Detection Canine Association—the nation’s only training program accredited to teach dogs to sniff bedbugs. You can trust our top dog to get to the bottom of your home’s bedbug situation!
So fear not—you do not have to get on your hands and knees, searching every crevice of your home for two-millimeter bed bugs with your eyes. Let a certified bed bug-sniffing dog seek them with his nose!