Dogs detect early bed bug infestations through smell

Detection dogs won’t let the bed bugs bite — literally.

Carol and Ryan Cobine promote early detection of and education about bed bugs through their business, The Dog Knows Detection. They utilize their dog Dixie, along with a handler, to identify the presence of the insects.
  
“We really want to educate people so that they understand what they can do, and we want to give people one more tool that they can use to monitor,” Carol Cobine said. “You don’t understand how much an infestation can turn your life upside down until you actually have one.”

The key to using dogs for inspections is the teamwork between the dog and its handler, Carol Cobine said.
 
She said the inspection process typically entails an initial walk-through of the site by the handler, followed by a walk-through with Dixie.

The handler then chooses a starting point for the dog in each room being examined and gives a search command. It is the handler’s job to keep the dog on task during this.

If a bed bug is scented, Dixie will sit and put her nose on the strongest source of the odor — a passive alert, Carol said.

This dog and handler team is an improvement from purely visual inspections as it speeds up the process, President of the National Bed Bug Association Micah Nix said.

“A human inspection can take anywhere from a half hour, to do it properly, and we can go in there and do it in just a few minutes using the dogs and a visual inspection,” Nix said.

Since bed bugs are difficult to detect due to their small size and elusive nature, Nix said using a dog’s sense of smell improves a bed bug inspection significantly.

“Because of the nature of the insect, they hide in various crevices, and they’re just not
presented for visual inspection. Using the olfactory senses of a dog magnifies your inspection many, many times over,” Nix said.

In addition, many people are unaware of bed bug detection methods, making it more difficult to determine whether or not bed bugs are present in a room or building.
 
“Only about a third of humans react to a bed bug bite, so two-thirds of us can be fed on and never even know it,” said Marc Lame, entomologist with the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
   
In any case, detecting bed bugs early, prior to an infestation, is crucial, Carol
Cobine said.

“If you detect them early, then you have a greater chance of remediation because bed bug infestations, once you have them, they are very difficult to remediate and they’re very hard to get rid of. If you catch them early, the dog can help determine the scope,” Carol Cobine said.