Bedbug-Sniffing Dogs Are In High Demand
May 31, 2011 in Health & Science News, Lifestyle News, News, Working Dogs
First came the bedbugs. Then the bedbug-sniffing dogs. Now the pest industry is offering certification to companies that want to make sure their dogs and handlers really can sniff out the blood-sucking insects.
In most cases, bedbugs don’t emit an odor that the human nose can detect, according to David Latimer, whose family runs a canine scent detection business called Forensic and Scientific Investigations in Alabama. But the smell, described by some entomologists as sweet and sickly, is something dogs can be taught to sniff out, much the same way they can be trained to detect explosives and narcotics.
And because bedbugs are often difficult to find — they range from 1 to 7 millimeters in length — demand for bedbug-sniffing dogs is skyrocketing.
The increase “has been the most dramatic of any canine scent detection since bomb dogs after 9/11,” said Latimer, who is also the police chief and fire chief of Harpersville, Alabama.
In the past 12 months, his company has trained about 40 dogs, just for bedbugs. By comparison, about half a dozen dogs were trained to detect explosives, and an additional eight to 10 to look for narcotics.
It takes about three months, and with a good handler and under excellent clinical conditions the dogs can be “very, very proficient” in finding bedbugs, Latimer said.
His company relies on rescue dogs of mixed breeds, many of them Beagles and Terriers. Personality is more important than pedigree.
“Most of the dogs we adopt would not make very good pets,” Latimer said. “Periodically, someone calls us up and says their dog is nuts, that it can’t seem to contain itself. It’s like the dog needs a dose of ritalin when really all it needs is a job.”
The recent nationwide resurgence in bedbugs has led an increasing number of pest control companies to use specially trained dogs, which cost between $10,000 and $12,000, to help locate the bugs and their eggs.
As for those nasty critters, bedbugs can live for months without a meal, hiding deep in mattress seams, baseboard cracks, and in clutter around beds. They travel easily, hitchhiking from person to person, city to city.
Move over, Doctor Doolittle, and make way for Dr. John Bradshaw — a British scientist and the author of the new book “Dog Sense: How the New Science of Dog Behavior Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet”.
