BATTLE CREEK – Dog Zone in Battle Creek is not infested with bed bugs, it's mined with them.
Small vials of dead and alive bed bugs and their fecal matter are strategically placed in bags, wall outlets, tubes and tins to train four dogs how to hunt the flesh-feeding bugs every day.
“You got to have happy dogs to do this,” said Mike Smith, owner of Bed Bug Investigations. “It’s a lot of work. These dogs are working sometimes six days a week.”
Video: Watch how bed bug-sniffing dogs are trained
Bed bug live chat: Ask Kalamazoo pest control manager about bugs at 2 p.m. Wednesday
Smith's dogs are becoming well-known in the Kalamazoo community and throughout Southwest Michigan as bed bugs continue to be a growing problem. The West Michigan region was recently ranked the No. 38 in the nation for the number of bed-bug treatments performed.
The bed-bug busters are sniffing through residences, apartment buildings, dorms and most recently through two branches of the Kalamazoo Public Library. They are regular guests at Borgess Medical Center and Bronson Methodist Hospital, homeless shelters and at local hotels. Smith says they have even passed through movie theaters.
Smith, who owns a Beagle mix named Daytona and a chocolate Labrador named B.B. King, partnered in September 2012 with Sarah Rodeheaver and her Boykin Spaniel named Pilot and a Wirehaired Pointing Griffon named Wiley to become bed-bug detectives. Smith, who opened his Battle Creek-based business in 2010, needed more help as calls increased last year.
The dogs are their owner’s pets and partners at Bed Bug Investigations, Smith’s company that partners with local pest control companies, such as Griffin Pest Control and others who do not own their own dogs, to investigate bed bug infestations.
Walking alongside Smith, Daytona follows her snout around several paint buckets placed in the open Dog Zone space on Feb. 22. When she passes the bucket containing bug bugs, she comes to a halt and sometimes bark, earning herself the toss of a yellow tennis ball and shouts of praise.
“Good girl,” Smith said in his pet voice.
Daytona, Smith’s first bed-bug sniffing dog, is certified by the North American Detector Dog Association and the International Association of Canine Pest Inspectors and has poked around thousands of homes, apartments and public places hunting for the blood-hungry pests. She is trained to discern live bed bugs and eggs from dead bed bugs and feces. She alerts when she comes across living bugs or eggs.
Bed bug-sniffing dogs are increasingly being considered the most effective way to detect if a bed bug infestation exists. However, only certain dogs have what it takes to get the job done, and there is not one specific breed that fits the ticket.
“The dog needs to have the desire to work and hunt,” said Rodeheaver, who owns Dog Zone and has been a dog trainer for 18 years. “It’s hard to find the right dogs; only about one out of 100 are qualified. They need to be comfortable going into every environment and able to work.”
Pilot is a rescue dog and rarely gets tired of playing. He gets excited the second they send him sniffing because “it’s nothing but a big game for him,” Rodeheaver said.
Rodeheaver began training scent detection dogs about three years ago. She initially started training alcohol and drug detection canine units for law enforcement officials, but it became evident that there was a need for bed-bug sniffing dogs. She signed on with Smith and personally cares for two of the pest-hunting dogs. Smith fell into the business after bringing bed bugs home from a hotel in San Francisco.
Bed Bug Investigations detection dog Daytona shows the location of bed bugs during training at Dog Zone in Battle Creek.
Bed Bug Investigations works mostly with pest control companies in Southwest Michigan, but answers calls from concerned clients from across the state and even some in Indiana.
Smith said he originally thought the company would be a part-time gig, but he is often booked three weeks out.
Rose Pest Solutions owns five bed-bug inspecting dogs but only three are housed in Michigan. Of the three, only one bed bug-sniffing dog is located in Southwest Michigan. Rose Pest’s dogs and trainers are certified through the National Entomology Scent Detection Canine Association.
“I put my money on the dog over a human any day of the week,” said Bill Welsh, the regional operations manager for Rose Pest Solutions. “Those dogs are far better than me and I’ve been doing this for 27 years. The detection part is in its infancy. As an industry, we’re trying to find something long term but a lot of folks don’t understand it’s a lot of work on the detection side and these dogs are not infallible, but they are far better than humans.”
Welsh estimates that his dogs have an 80 percent accuracy rate and Smith says his dogs are right about 90 percent of the time. While both admit the dogs can be wrong and will in fact have down days, they warn that some bed bug investigators are simply not honest.
Jim Skinner, president of National Entomology Scent Detection Canine Association and a pest control company owner in New York, said the organization was created to prevent what happened to pest companies that used termite-sniffing dogs about a decade ago.
“They were using dogs, but because there was no certification or someone looking over the industry, they lost credibility with customers because a lot of companies were doing the wrong thing.”
When the right dog is properly trained, one study out of the University of Florida reports, they are 98 percent accurate, Skinner said.
Skinner suggests clients ask about where the team, which consists of the dog and trainer, received their schooling in bed-bug detection, especially before paying for an unexpected and costly service. Inspections can cost hundreds, and heating treatments, which are considered the most effective way to eradicate bed bugs, can cost thousands of dollars.
“Using dogs is more attractive because they are quicker and more accurate,” Skinner said. “But there are not enough dogs to handle the problem.”
Rose Pest Solutions Regional Operations Manager Bill Welsh will participate in a live chat at 2 p.m. on Wednesday to answer questions about bed bugs, bed bugs infestations, bed bugs treatments and new technology and more.
Contact Ursula Zerilli at uzerilli@mlive.com or 269-254-5295. Follow her on twitter.