Bed Bug Dogs In New York City
Ever since domestication dogs have been friends, companions and even employees of humans. From guard dogs and herding dogs to bomb sniffing dogs and bloodhounds used in manhunts the canine has proven extremely useful in helping man get through everyday life. Because of the dog’s amazing sense of smell many breeds have been put to work to find fugitives, lost children, narcotics and bombs at airports and even gas leaks in schools and buildings. Now, with the unwelcome resurgence of bed bugs in major urban centers, especially New York City, pest control experts are again turning to the canine and his extraordinary olfactory abilities to help weed out the annoying mite sized critters that are infesting homes, apartments, hotels and dormitories.
The past few decades have seen the unique abilities of dogs put to work to help in many human endeavors from hunting down criminals, locating earthquake survivors under piles of rubble and uncovering explosive materials in suitcases at airports and train terminals. Dogs appear to have an inherent need to make their human masters happy and no matter what the task many canines have proven to be tireless, fearless and determined to see a job through. Because of their ability to be trained dogs are now used for many special activities and locating bed bugs is a field in which well-trained dogs excel.
Of all the insects out there bed bugs are one of the hardest to find. Tiny in size, mostly nocturnal and very elusive these mite sized insects have befuddled pest control experts for years. Inspectors relying on their vision alone cannot always determine if bed bugs are present in a room. However, recent studies show trained bed bug sniffing dogs have close to a 96% accuracy rate in locating bed bug infestations. What might take an inspector 20 minutes to do a well-trained dog can accomplish in merely 20 seconds. As people bend and squint to try to locate bed bugs dogs simply are led to the room, given the command from their handler and immediately go to work literally pressing their noses to the grindstone to find the smell they’ve been trained to recognize. Once they have locked in on the unmistakable scent of a bed bug the dog will sit or stand by the area and lead with his snout where the insects are hiding.
While drug dealers and terrorists can try to mask their bombs and narcotics with cover scents such as coffee beans and dead fish to divert dog’s away bed bugs are not that clever. Their sweet and musty though unpleasant odor is a dead give away and a dog trained to pick up the scent almost never misses.
In a city as tightly packed as New York, with all its building mazes and crawl spaces bed bugs seem to have found their Garden of Eden. The mass of concrete, wood and metal provides millions of crevices, nooks and crannies for bed bugs to squirm into and hide. Well, almost. With more dogs being trained every day the tide is about to turn in the battle against bed bug infestations. With a well-trained army of bed bug sniffing dogs on the clock bed bugs will be rooted out room by room and properly exterminated by trained professionals.