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Specially Trained Dog Sniffs Out Bedbugs
by: Rover 411
POSTED: 5:01 pm EDT October 2, 2008, MIDDLETOWN, Ohio -- Itchy pests are invading some Middletown homes, but a new detection method is helping to root out the problem.
Bella the detection dog doesn’t sniff out drugs or cadavers, but bedbugs.
The 4-year-old Labrador retriever has been trained to detect the pests, which her handler calls “Fred.”“Bella, go find Fred,” said handler Gary Broberg.
The pair travel around the country looking for bedbugs, and their most recent stop was Belinda Hurley’s Middletown home.
“We think we picked them up in Peru and Ecuador,” Hurley said. “When I came home, the next morning I was covered in bites.”
Locating the bugs has been a challenge, she said, so Hurley turned to Bella.
The dog searched every room in the house, but when she came across a bag of clothes, Bella sat down – which is how she lets her handler know when she’s found bedbugs.
“Bedbugs give off a particular scent, and these dogs are scented on just to find bed bugs or eggs,” said Broberg.
Just to be sure, Broberg moved the clothes to another room, but Bella wasn’t fooled.
She sat near the bag of clothes twice, and Hurley knew the dog was right.
“The items in that bag were on that vacation a year ago,” Hurley said.
Inspectors from Perfection Pest Control didn’t find any bedbugs in the bag, but they set Hurley’s mind at ease by hauling off the clothes.
And Bella has been such a hit that the company plans to get a detection dog to work permanently in the area.
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