If you’ve ever had a bedbug infestation, you’ll know exactly how hard it is to get rid of them.
They hide in the tiny cracks in floorboards and walls, the seams of mattresses, and crevices that bug bombs can’t reach – re-emerging at night to feast on their favorite meal: human blood.
And, when left to their own devices, this arthropods’ population swells to epic proportions.
Fortunately, specialized pest control companies have an array of weapons in their arsenal to find and eliminate them – chiefly, highly-trained NY Bed Bug Dogs.
These special scent-detecting canines have changed the way we approach the growing bedbug epidemic, and they are the answer to eradicating them once and for all.
Let’s take a look at how dogs can detect bedbug infestations and why they are more efficient at tracking them down.
How Dogs Detect Bedbugs
Service dogs have been used by humans to detect anything from drugs and explosives to cancer. They have proved invaluable in search and rescue missions and can even sense when their owners are about to have a dip in blood sugar or an epileptic fit. The reason? Their incredible noses.
Dogs have around 300 million olfactory receptors in their noses – which makes their sense of smell roughly 100,000 times greater than ours. Simply put, bedbug detection dogs can root out hidden bedbugs in places where they would be invisible to humans.
These dogs have been trained to alert their handlers to the presence of bedbugs in cracks, crevices, mattresses, and other impossible-to-reach areas. What’s more, they can tell if the bedbugs are alive or dead and recognize their eggs and exoskeletons with 95% accuracy.
The Advantages of Canine Bedbug Detection
Using a scent-detection dog to perform bedbug inspections has five main benefits.
1. They Are Highly Accurate
As we’ve mentioned, scent detection dogs can pinpoint bedbug infestations with 95% accuracy – they can detect bedbugs in walls, floorboards, mattresses, inside furniture, and any other places that bedbugs can hide.
2. They Detect All Life Stages
Canine bedbug detectors can differentiate between live and dead bedbugs, their eggs, and their exoskeletons – which means they can detect every life stage in the bedbug infestation cycle. To eliminate bedbugs, the eggs and larvae must be eliminated too.
3. They Detect Bedbugs Fast
Standard bedbug inspections can be lengthy because humans have trouble detecting them by sight. Canines, on the other hand, can detect bedbug infestations in a fraction of the time.
4. They Are Less Invasive Than Other Inspections
Because canine inspectors rely on their noses to detect bedbugs, inspections are less invasive and less disruptive to residents. A dog does not need to pull up carpets, dismantle furniture, or remove baseboards.
5. It’s Less Expensive
Because dogs can detect infestations in record time and detect every stage of the bedbug life cycle, uncontrollable infestations that require costly treatment can be completely avoided. Early detection is the key to keeping the bedbug population under control.
The Bottom Line
Our faithful canine companions have proved time and time again that they are far superior when it comes to their sense of smell.
Utilizing highly trained bedbug sniffer dogs to detect infestations early is proving to be the most effective way to eliminate these pests for good. Next time you suspect an infestation, give them a try.