Pest Control Companies Using Dogs to Sniff Out Bedbugs

Lori Ennis
by Lori Ennis
The thought of bedbugs gives us the heebie jeebies, which is why we love the idea of exterminators using trained bed bug detection dogs.


The thought of bedbugs give me the willies. I am not a huge fan of hotels (though I find them a necessary evil because I love traveling) and I always, in the back of my mind, wonder what little creatures I may encounter.


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I know they’re not just limited to hotels…they can be anywhere from the movie theater to the airport and your local furniture store. Pest control companies can get rid of them, but it’s not easy, and they recommend having good prevention as a key ingredient to protecting your home from an infestation.


So how much do I love that there is a company that uses dogs to sniff them out? Louis Robinson owns Robinson Dog Training, and he trains dogs to sniff out bedbugs for pest control companies in the Phoenix, AZ area. He said that dogs are much more reliable than humans are when it comes to seeing and/or detecting the bugs, and that studies show that 99% of the time a dog will detect bed bugs where a human can only do so about 30% of the time.


Additionally, dogs, with their super sniffers, can find bugs in less than a minute, if trained properly, while it could take several hours for trained human inspectors to come up with anything.


Robinson is a former bomb detection dog handler for the US Air Force and has trained dogs to look for everything from bombs to rattlesnakes to toads.


He added that a large business that might take inspectors 2-3 hours to search through, could be done in less than a minute by a trained bed bug dog.


Robinson started out as a bomb dog handler for the US Air Force before launching his dog training business. He has trained police dogs, therapy dogs, service dogs, protection dogs, and dogs who are able to detect everything from Sonoran toads to rattlesnakes. His bed bug company, Bug Dog Pro, specifically looks for bed bugs, and with a sweet rescue dog named Lucy at the helm. Lucy was covered in mud, Robinson said, when they found her, and she now understands English and German commands with training.


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He taught Lucy how to sniff the bugs out after Robinson scraped dead bugs into a container for her to learn the scent, and now she’s a pro. Robinson says that Lucy has been all over, at various public buildings, and she’s able to detect bed bugs before infestations occur, as that’s a pivotal time. He also says that bed bugs don’t care about how clean or dirty some place is–they’re just looking for your blood. Lucy, and other dogs like her, can prevent that before there is ever an infestation.


Sounds like reason number 1,294,827,821 why dogs are simply amazing!

Lori Ennis
Lori Ennis

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