The perks of having a bed bug dog

Bed bugs spread by hitching lifts on clothes, suitcases, handbags, shoes and so on. Recently I came home from a bed bug heat treatment, which had been a particularly heavy infestation, and took off my shoes at the bottom of our stairs and left them there.  My Wife, who is paranoid about me bringing bed bugs home, had given me one of ‘those’ looks and so I put them into a plastic bag until I had time to inspect them properly.

The next morning, I was taking Lola, our bed bug sniffer dog , out for a walk and she started acting very interested around the bag and then began ‘alerting’ next to it to indicate that she had detected bed bugs!  We immediately treated the area of the stairs, and I am pleased to say that 3 weeks on, we do not have bed bugs.

Having this happen with my own Bed Bug Dog re-affirmed the following:

• The earlier you catch a bed bug infestation, the easier it will be to get rid of, with minimum disruption
• Bed bugs can hitch on anything which can come into contact with them
• Bed bugs will usually choose quiet undisturbed areas to live and so shoes would be an unlikely home, however, if you stand on eggs or in a heavily infested area the bed bugs will use you like a bus to get to their next destination!