Scout the Bed Bug-Sniffing Beagle
March 13, 2009 — Good night? Check. Sleep tight? Check. Don't let the bed bugs bite? Noooooooo!!!! Bed bugs are back! The New York metropolitan region is, literally, crawling with them. The city council has created an advisory board, the issue is getting extravagant press, and now, helping battle the scourge, is just one of the cutest widdle doggies we've ever seen, oh, isn't he cute, yes he is, who's a good boy? You are! You're a good boy! Now you go search out the enemy and locate his lair so that we can bug-bomb him to Kingdom Come, yes, we will!
We'd thought we'd everything when we wrote about the Connecticut-based Bed Bug Finders, Inc., and its two bed bug-sniffing canines. Now comes Long Island's A&C Exterminating Corp. and its noble nine-month-old, Scout. Isn't he just the cutest ... sorry, sorry. No disrespect meant. He's a working dog, trained for months at the National Entomology Scent Detection Canine Association facility in Seminole, Fla., and like his brethren can locate bed bugs in a room much, much faster than a human being trying to do so by sight.
Hopefully, your building isn't among those infested by Cimex lectularius, as the biting but non-disease-carrying insects are formally known. But if you suspect it might be, you can get helpful intel from the group New York vs. Bed Bugs, and can take heart that the city's new Bed Bug Advisory Board is up and running to track and report infestations and to provide advice, traning and information on preventing and treating infestations and properly disposing of infested items.
Now, c'mere, Scout, and give us a kiss, oh, who's a good boy, yes, you're a good boy!
A&C Exterminating Corp. • 386 East Meadow Avenue, East Meadow, NY 11554 • (516) 683-8376 • toll-free (800) 322-1404 • E-mail contact form here