A New Breed of Guard Dog Attacks Bedbugs

[SoCalDem]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/garden/11bedbug.html?src=me&ref=general



Cruiser, a puggle, sniffs for bedbugs. More Photos »

By PENELOPE GREEN
Published: March 10, 2010



CRUISER made four house calls on a recent rain-soaked Tuesday. There were two happy endings and two unhappy ones, a fairly typical outcome for a typical day in the life of a bedbug-sniffing puggle.



“Except that there’s nothing typical about this business,” said his handler, Jeremy Ecker, 35, whose six-month-old company, the Bed Bug Inspectors, has vetted hotels, college dorms and Midtown office buildings, suburban homes, bare-bones Brooklyn rentals and tony Manhattan co-ops. (Mr. Ecker, who charges $350 for a residential inspection, is an independent inspector, meaning he has no affiliation with an exterminator, though many hire him to check a property they have treated.)

Increasingly, real estate lawyers are urging buyers in contract to inspect apartments before they close, and in their advertising, many pest control companies exhort would-be tenants to “inspect before you rent.” And dogs like Cruiser can inspect a room in minutes, whereas lesser mammals like human beings need hours to conduct a visual inspection.

Bedbug-sniffing dogs, adorable yet stunningly accurate — entomology researchers at the University of Florida report that well-trained dogs can detect a single live bug or egg with 96 percent accuracy — are the new and furry front line in an escalating and confounding domestic war.


snip

[I Have A Dream]

1. This is really good news. nt

[PDJane]

2. good news indeed.......

Toronto is becoming increasingly infested with these things. I've not run into them yet, but friends have. It's one of the reasons that, despite several annoyances, I remain in this building. No roaches, no bedbugs.

[intheflow]

4. They seem to be more common here in Denver, too.

The first time I encountered them was in Mississippi, I thought it was too dry or too cold for them here. :shrug: Sign of the times, I guess, bed-bug sniffing dogs.

[Hannah Bell]

12. no, they're very adaptable. they're spreading as poverty spreads.

neoliberal economic policy has many interesting costs.

same with headlice.

[cliffordu]

3. We could use one of those around here....

[pnorman]

5. Here's a creepy aspect of that job:

"his poses challenges, however, for a dog handler. Back home in Fresh Meadows, Queens, Mr. Ecker discovered pretty quickly that his new career required an extreme lifestyle commitment. Not only would he have to live with bedbugs to train and feed his new roommates, Cruiser and Freedom, he would have to feed the bugs, too. Remember that dinner for a bedbug is a nice long quaff of human blood; Mr. Ecker rolled up a sleeve to reveal a horrifying tattoo of old bites. (Bedbugs don’t carry disease, but their bites can itch like crazy.)" (Page 2)

[Control-Z]

6. Yuuuck!! n/t

[Electric Monk]

7. ewww, there's gotta be a better way... nt

[pnorman]

8. I neglected to include the below in that excerpt:

"Happily, the bugs need to eat only once a month or less, he said. “It’s not so bad. You can hardly feel it.”

A few days later at his home, Mr. Ecker demonstrated, tipping a vial of bugs onto his forearm, which the critters latched on to like hungry newborns, their bodies quickly swelling with blood................."

[eShirl]

13. at least he doesn't give that "job" to some animal

[pnorman]

14. I'm not sure, but I believe that bedbugs are "picky".

It has to be HUMAN blood!

[dmr]

9. I'd have to be mad at myself to do that

What a work hazard!
:crazy:

[bridgit]

10. It would seem someone needs to

[Hannah Bell]

11. let's ask why bedbugs are enlarging their us territory instead.

"Largely eradicated as pests in the United States in the early 1940s, bedbugs have been resurgent in the past decade to near epidemic proportions."


hint: right-wing economic policies