Trained dogs rid resorts and homes of bed bugs

Dogs are famous for fighting crime and guiding those who can’t see. But now man’s best friend is getting groomed for a new job: Bed bug detector.

“A canine’s sense of smell is hundreds of times stronger than a human’s eyes,” says Donna Coberly of Excelsis Detection. “We use dogs to find the bugs before people get bitten.”

Bed bugs are elusive, transient and nocturnal which makes them extremley difficult for humans to spot.



But the Excelsis dogs are trained to smell live bed bugs.

Excelsis Detection has figured out how to train dogs to sniff around hotel and motel rooms, cruise ships and homes to detect bed bugs where they frequently become a problem.

The company works in tandem with a pest control service. After one dog detects live bed bugs, a second dog confirms the find, then a visual inspection is made by the Excelsis dog handler and the pest control company and the bed bugs are erradicated.