Daily Archives: August 16, 2015

Worried you have bed bugs? Lexi and Zip have the answer.

The first step in resolving a bed bug problem is finding them. Bed bugs often hide in the tightest cracks and crevices and usually come out at night. While you are able to see an adult bed bug, nymphs and eggs are particularly tough to find. Thats why a dogs keen sense of smell offers one of the best ways to find bed bugs, even at the earliest stages of an infestation.

In fact, a University of Florida study comparing the accuracy of bed bug dogs against a trained technician shows that dogs were 96% accurate in finding bed bugs compared to 25% accuracy of trained pest professionals.

Dogs have been used to sniff out drugs, bombs, and missing people for years and bed bug dogs are trained using the same techniques. Lexi and Zip have undergone intense training in order to alert on only live bed bugs and bed bug eggs and their training continues each and every day so we are confident in their accuracy.

We train daily and use differing numbers of all life stages of bed bugs, including eggs. We replicate home and office layouts in our training studio and train our dogs to find bed bugs in any location. We inspect fire stations, schools, retirement communities, universities, warehouses and any other type of structure you could imagine. The bugs could be anywhere, so we train our K9/Handler Teams to search everywhere to find them. In addition to the K9 search, our skilled handlers will conduct a visual inspection for bed bugs.

1) Handler visually asses the room. He or she will visually inspect the area to determine the best way to conduct the search.

2) Handler and K9 work through the room. The handler has the K9 on a leash and they work their way through the room making sure the dog sniffs along baseboards, bed and sofa seams, chairs, luggage and just about anywhere a bed bug can hide.

3) K9 willalert if it detects the presence of bed bugs. The alert is the dogs unique way of telling the handler that it smells the bed bug odor. The most common alerts are sitting or pointing to the source of the odor.

4) If there is an alert, handler will attempt to visuallyconfirm the presence of bugs. The handler will make every attempt to visually confirm the presence of bed bugs which includes looking for the actual bug or evidence of bug activity such as a cast skin or fecal spotting.

Not only is a canine search effective, it is one of the fastest ways to search for bed bugs. A home generally take between 30-60 minutes, an apartment takes 10-15 minutes a single hotel room can be searched in 2-3 minutes. A human search can take hours and is limited to what the inspector can see, so low level infestations are easily missed.

The preparation for a K9 search is minimal. We ask that you remove from the floorany food or any other item that might be harmful to the dog (medicine, mouse traps, garbage). If you have a pet, we will ask that you put the pet outdoors or in a cage/kennel or in a bathroom during the search. If the handler feels that a fan or air conditioner is disrupting the air flow, you may be asked to temporarily turn it off during the search. Most importantly,we are able to give you the best search possible where there is minimal clutter. We dont expect homes to be clutter-free, and your handler will advise you when clutter might impact the accuracy of the search.

Click Here for our K9 Inspection Preparation Checklist

Our dog and handler teams are certified by the National Entomology Scent Detection Canine Association(NESDCA). NESDCA is a certifying organization which assures the highest quality standards of scent detection canines.

Lexi isa three-year-old lab/terrier mix, who loves to find bed bugs. She was surrendered to a shelter in Kansas because she was too much for her original owners. What Lexi needed was a job. She was saved from the shelter and trained as a bed bug detection dog. She has been working for two years andit is easy to see how much she enjoys her job. She works with company owner, Dave Pine and lives with the Pine family.

Zip is a terrier mix who was rescued from a shelter in Virginia and trained to find bed bugs when he was just two-months-old. Weighing just 7 pounds, Zip is a big personality in a little package. His size gives him a real edge in this bed bug business, as he is able to get intotight spaces where bed bugs like to hide. Since he is so small, he travels easily and hasdetected bed bugsacross the country. We are committed to the physical and emotional well-being of our dogs. Our dogs lead balanced and full lives. We love our dogs and believe you will, too.

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bed bugs Washington DC - K9 Bed Bug Inspection