LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – When it comes to hard-to-find bed bugs, one pest control company in the Las Vegas Valley is using four-legged friends to get the job done.
In hotels, apartments in between tenants, medical facilities and even buses, these Belgian Malinois are trained bed bug detectors.
“Anywhere people spend a lot of time, that’s where we can be,” Preventive Pest Control’s K9 Team Supervisor, Diego Rodriguez, says.
They’re certified through the International Casino and Resort Working Dog Association.
Rodriguez says they went through about nine months of detection training, being taught what bed bugs smell like and what to do once found.
FOX5 joined Rodriguez and 10-year-old Scout as they showed us how it’s done. As an example, she searched for ‘training aids,’ which are essentially bags of bugs, placed strategically throughout a short term rental.
When Scout smells one, she alerts Rodriquez by looking at him and freezing.
“If we know they did the job right, we’ll mark and we’ll say ‘yes,’ and then they know that their toy is coming, and they will be coming at us to get that toy,” he says.
For Scout, this is a family business, her two pups work alongside her. All three stay with Rodriguez in his home after clocking out from a long day’s work.
“They actually have the ability to just shut it off, they can go home and sleep the rest of the day,” he says.
If working a 9-5 wasn’t enough for this four-legged family, they also have extracurriculars. Rodriguez says they participate in a sport called Schutzhund in their downtime to work on their obedience and training.
“The average person should not have this dog, because they need a job, they need a task,” he says.
Preventative Pest Control is offering free help to seniors and disabled adults struggling with bed bugs through a Department of Health and Human Services grant. For more information, click here.
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