What are the benefits of canine bed bug inspections?

Bed bugs like to hide in tiny crevices that are just over 2 millimeters wide, making them difficult to spot in small numbers. Once there are so many bed bugs that they start getting pushed out of the good hiding spots, that’s when we start seeing them with our eyes. 

Way before the problem reaches that stage, a specially-trained bed bug dog can accurately sniff out even small numbers of bed bugs. 

With how complex and expensive it is to treat a full-blown bed bug infestation, catching onto them early can potentially save thousands of dollars in treatment costs, and also help you avoid spreading them to your neighbors.

One alternative to canine inspections is the use of bed bug monitoring devices or traps. The most commonly-used kind are bed bug interceptors, which are passive traps placed around the legs of your bed to catch any bed bugs trying to climb up. 

While monitoring traps have the benefit of never giving a false positive (if you catch a bed bug, then you have bed bugs), the downside is that it often takes 1–2 weeks to catch one. That’s because bed bugs don’t feed every night; they typically feed every 5–10 days. 

On the other hand, a canine inspection gives immediate results, allowing you to move forward quickly with treatment if needed. 

Because a single female bed bug can lay around 1–7 eggs per day, and each egg hatches in 6–10 days, every week of waiting gives time for a new generation of bed bugs to be produced and start spreading.

Because bed bug dogs rely on smell, not sight, to locate bed bugs, there’s no need to flip over beds and disassemble furniture as you would during a visual inspection. 

The benefit of this is saving time and labor without sacrificing accuracy.

But that doesn’t mean you don’t need to prepare for a canine inspection. At a minimum, clutter should be removed and furniture shifted so that the dog has enough room to sniff around. Any distracting smells, such as from food, cigarettes, and other pet items should also be kept away from the inspection area.

Without knowing exactly where the bed bugs (and their eggs) are located, the exterminator will either need to spray everything (which increases pesticide use and the total costs) or risk missing a few that may come back and re-infest your home.

Bed bug sniffing dogs solve this problem by pinpointing the specific rooms or areas where bed bugs are hiding. 

This helps narrow down the scope of the infestation, allowing the exterminator to come up with a more targeted, effective, and eco-friendly treatment plan.

Bed bugs like to hide in tiny crevices that are just over 2 millimeters wide, making them difficult to spot in small numbers. Once there are so many bed bugs that they start getting pushed out of the good hiding spots, that’s when we start seeing them with our eyes. 

Way before the problem reaches that stage, a specially-trained bed bug dog can accurately sniff out even small numbers of bed bugs. 

With how complex and expensive it is to treat a full-blown bed bug infestation, catching onto them early can potentially save thousands of dollars in treatment costs, and also help you avoid spreading them to your neighbors.

Speed is one of the biggest advantages of canine bed bug inspections. 

An experienced bed bug sniffing dog (with a skilled handler) can cover an entire apartment in a matter of minutes when a visual inspection might take hours. And they usually do so with greater accuracy as well.

This efficiency is the most apparent when checking for bed bugs throughout an entire building, since bed bugs can easily spread to neighboring apartments, as well as in large, nontraditional spaces like schools, offices, and retail stores.