Hart-Shegos Inspection Services, LLC offers quality inspections and training services to enhance healthy environments in affordable housing

Typically, when an occupant suspects a pest infestation they will call a pest control company and a technician will walk through the area and look for evidence of bugs.  This works best for pests that are large enough to see and which move around openly.  But bed bugs are notoriously difficult to find.  Nocturnal, they come out of their deep hiding places at night because they are attracted to the carbon dioxide of our breath when we sleep.  Once they feed (see more about the biology of bed bugs in our e-learning), they crawl back into their hiding places.  The evidence they leave behind are their feces or blood smears from their bites.  Once you begin to notice their “evidence” you have a significant infestation: a costly pest control intervention. 

Bed Bug dogs are highly trained and specialized scent detectors.  These dogs are trained to find “live” bugs – not the dead casings of past infestations – and pin point where the infestation is.  Often, when dogs are used on a regular basis, the evidence is identified before it has grown into a broad infestation. The following are a few facts about canine detection:

• Dogs have demonstrated their keen ability to detect odors and chemicals for many years.  They are highly prized for their ability to sniff out bombs for the military, rescue survivors or find cadavers for emergency rescue teams, and aid drug enforcement in finding illegal drugs.  Dogs are also being used as service dogs to alert people with seizure and physiological disorders due to changes in body chemistry.
• Human are credited with the ability to find about 30% of bed bug infestations as compared to 90-98% by highly trained dogs.
• Dogs can find bed bugs without disturbing and scattering them from their hiding places, making them easier to exterminate.
• Dogs can find bed bugs even when they are burrowed deep under carpets, household items, and behind walls.