Bed Bug Sniffing Dog

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Think you may have bedbugs? If you’re unsure why not hire a dog to investigate the situation for you? That’s what Belinda Hurley did. According to the article ‘Dog trained to sniff out bedbugs’ by Eric Robinette from the Middletown Journal (Middletown, Ohio) Hurley is Franklin Municipal Court’s probation officer and had Bella, a Labrador retriever, trained to detect bedbugs find the little pests in her own home. Gary Broberg, a dog trainer, is Bella’s owner and says that the insects give off a pheromone that Bella can smell. So just like a dog can be trained to detect drugs they can be trained to detect bedbugs.

So how much does hiring a dog to determine if you have a bedbug problem cost? In Bella’s case it runs anywhere from $250 to $800, depending on the size of the building. Is it worth spending the extra cash to hire a dog? According to Broberg Bella can offer assurance that insecticides can’t. A direct quote from Broberg from the article says: ‘…they could be hiding in cracks and crevices, but a dog will let you know if they’re there or not.’

Hurley defiantly was looking for that extra assurance, as she found Bella through law enforcement connections. Despite already having pest control in her home, Hurley wanted Bella to double check the situation and expressed her faith in canines. For some people paying the extra cash for a canine to detect bedbugs is well worth the price. It just may allow them to sleep better at night knowing that they are 100% bedbug free. After all say the pest control missed some of those bugs, say about 40 of them, just give it a mere six months and you’ll have over 5,905 of the little unwanted guests!

Full story found here: http://www.middletownjournal.com/hp/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/10/02/hjn100308bedbugdog.html

Bealla, the bed bug sniffing dog, can be found at bedbugdoginspection.com