Bed bugs have invaded areas of high volume traffic all across the country. The insecticides used today are not as effective as the pest controls in the United States once were. The result has been a resurgence of the dark brown beetle, almost invisible to the human eye and about one-fourth inch in size. They change to their dark red color after a couple of meals of human blood.

Grand Valley State University has recognized the possible threat and hired pest-sniffing dog Buggsy to come to the rescue.

Buggsy, a bed bug search beagle, stands at the heart of Kaama Pest Management’s K9 Inspection Services of Wyoming, Mich., and is “the best thing we have ever done,” said Eric Taylor, the energetic beagle’s owner and trainer. Buggsy thinks its all a game and associates smelling the scent of a bedbug with treats after he sits and points to the culprit with his nose. He is capable of sniffing out as many as 115 dorm rooms in six hours.

“He can do your normal dorm room in less than a minute,” Taylor added.

Contrary to popular belief, where bed bugs hang out “has nothing to do with sanitation,” said Taylor. The bed bug does not feed off of trash but on human blood and unlike mosquitoes, it does not transmit disease. Bed bugs tend to show up anywhere with high volume traffic, such as movie theaters, restaurants, mass transit and hospitals.

“Bed bugs are opportunists,” said Charlie Neil, owner of Pest and Termite Control. “The bed bugs lie around and wait in areas where they know humans hang out. After infestation of an area is found, it is cleaned by sterilizing all clothing in a hot cycle and then vacuuming the upholstery and treating it with insecticides.”

The small critters can also survive for as a long as a year without their next meal and often hide in near-unreachable spaces such as electrical outlets and behind baseboards, making human detection more difficult.

GVSU Housing Director Andy Beachnau treats all complaints as factual and he oversees how these problems are addressed. If there is a complaint, housing is quick to respond to it. Sophomore and self-proclaimed “clean freak” Taylor Itsell was in New York this summer during the bed bug scare there. She cleaned her Ravine apartment for four hours “from top to bottom” when she first moved in and had the mattress and refrigerator replaced.

For canines with keener senses, such as Buggsy, the job of finding bed bugs is much easier. He can detect even a single egg in the “top head of a screw inside of the bed,” Taylor said.

Taylor saved Buggsy from being abandoned to a dog shelter and is glad he is able to provide a better life for him.

“He is not just an employee,” he said. “He is my partner and he follows me wherever I go.”

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