I've Heard Of Bed Bug Detection Dogs: Do They Actually Exist?

When it comes to the UK, bed bugs are probably the number one pest control issue. Other than rats and mice, no other pest causes quite as much misery. Not only that, these pests are a serious problem worldwide. Due to this, millions have been spent on combatting bed bugs. This includes the creation of innovative ways to detect and destroy them. The latest of these are bed bug detection dogs. But do these dogs actually exist? What’s more, are they actually useful?

What you need to know about bed bug detection dogs

If dogs can detect humans trapped under metres of snow or rubble, drugs, and bombs, shouldn’t they be able to find bed bugs? The answer is yes. As it turns out, bed bug detection dogs do actually exist. These dogs have been trained to sniff out hitch hiking bed bugs and determine if they are hiding in mattresses and rooms.

But the real question is this: how accurate are these dogs actually? According to some people, they are extremely accurate. In fact, it’s said that these dogs can detect bed bugs with about 93% accuracy, which we suppose is good enough. But what we’ve also heard is that some studies reported entirely different results. In these studies, bed bug detection dogs had a 44% accuracy rate. In addition to this, they had a false positive rate of about 15%, which isn’t very encouraging.

Are bed bug detection dogs useful?

Ultimately, in our point of view, these dogs really aren’t worth the time. This might sound biased, but there’s good reason for this. To begin with, bed bugs aren’t something you have to “detect.” If you have them, you’ll know. For example, if you’re waking up covered in bites on the body, then you clearly have bed bugs. Yes, there’s a chance that it could be some other insect, but 9 out of 10 times, its bed bugs.

These pests also have very obvious symptoms. The biggest of these is that you have blood stains all over your bedding. Along with this you’ll see dark spots on your sheets and pillows. If you’re experiencing both of these problems at once, then you more than likely have bed bugs.

Another reason why we take a dim view of bed bug detection dogs is because of pest control scams. We see dozens of these scams every year, and this does almost sound like a scam. There is no way of knowing if the person you’re dealing with is honest and they won’t get rid of bed bugs completely. There’s nothing stopping them from training their dog to react to a certain signal. They can then tell you that the dog has found bed bugs. We’re not saying this happens, but it could happen. At the end of the day, it’s better to hire a professional. We can quickly determine if you have bed bugs. What’s more, our technicians are a lot smarter at getting rid of bed bugs than even the best trained dog.