Making Bed Bugs Our Business

It seems as though the last couple of years we have been hearing a lot of chatter about bed bugs.  One would think this something that would be of concern for an exterminator, but in fact many people have been making bed bugs their business.  Dogs are now being employed to sniff them out, lawyers hired to hold landlord accountable, doctors are staying informed to learn about signs and risks of these pesky insects and now even we have made bed bugs our business!

BBG&G is a full-service advertising agency servicing business from various industries.  As we do with any new client, we immediately dove right into the research phase so that we could learn everything there was to know about bed bugs.  I’ll be the first to admit, there were times that my skin started to crawl just by reading about them.  Through this learning process, I was definitely glad to know that there are resources like Discovery Dogs, which can be used to leverage the upper hand against these nuisances.

Not So Fun Facts That Will Make You Itch

New York City ranked first place in the nation for the city most infected with bed bugs in recent years, according to the world’s largest pest control company. But 2012 has Philadelphia topping the list, while New York City gladly takes third place thanks to certified bed bug sniffing dogs like Daisy, Midas, and Tater from Discovery Dogs.

Bed bugs are parasites that typically live in beds and furniture, preferring to feed on human blood. They have made a comeback this past decade due, in part, to the increase in world travel and globalization. As bed bugs are nocturnal, victims are bitten while asleep — often unaware. Depending on your skin’s sensitivity to the bites, some infestations may go unnoticed. Bed bugs are notoriously difficult to detect and many people find them horrifying, but they do not carry disease and actually pose less of a threat than mosquitoes. 

The Good News

Our client, Discovery Dogs was founded in 2009, when owner Lee Browning Jr. noticed that effective detection services and education were lacking, while bed bug infestations were becoming more prevalent. Still today, the general public’s knowledge on bed bug breeding habits, hiding places, their detection, and methods of extermination needs improvement.  Discovery Dogs has made it their mission to educate and empower homeowners, property managers, and anyone needing to identify and manage the presence of bed bugs. Their team handles the screening and detection process quickly and discretely. If a plan for extermination is required, it can be implemented immediately.

Bed bug sniffing may not be a career with much prestige, but at the end of the day, these canines’ posses a skill putting them in an elite category among their peers.  Canine inspection combines the skills of trained and certified dogs, with an experienced handler, to inspect suspect areas for potential bed bug infestation. A handler focuses on specific target areas for infestation, but will direct the canine to inspect all areas for varying degrees of time. These inspections are commonly conducted in hotels, hospitals, and other areas with community bedding and furniture such as dorm rooms, cruise ships, automobiles, and planes.

The training of the Discovery Dogs is identical to the training used for the detection of explosives and narcotics. While the accuracy rate of canine detection for bed bugs is very high, results are based on the handler’s ability as well as the ability of the dogs.

Tater may not be the first name that pops in your mind when you think of a super hero, but I am sure that there are plenty of New Yorkers that feel he has saved the day.