More Than One Way To Catch A Bug

This is Cruiser and he is a bedbug's worst enemy. He is also very busy lately, sniffing out their presence (or absence) in New York City where bedbugs are an epidemic. According to the New York Times, from whence Cruiser's photo came, last year there were 11,000 complaints reported to the city's Department of Housing, Preservation and Development with 4,084 violations. Those numbers are nearly twice what they were the year before.

Enter Cruiser, who belongs to Jeremy Ecker, the owner of the six month old business the Bed Bug Inspectors. Cruiser, a puggle, was trained in Florida at the J & K Canine Academy in High Springs, Florida. He sniffs out bedbugs and is rewarded with food when he finds them.

He is pretty good at his job, as the NY Times documents, but the training parameters of his job (eating only when he finds bugs) mean that Ecker must keep a supply of live bedbugs around so that Cruiser can eat when he isn't at work. Bedbugs feast on human blood once a month and you guessed it--Ecker's arm is their buffet. Rest assured that the bugs he keeps on hand are kept in vials that let air in but no bugs out.

Bedbugs are a scourge in big cities where they can easily migrate from one apartment to the next and just because Cruiser finds them does not mean the end of their existence. For that, the unlucky home owner must call in an exterminator. There are lots of methods to kill bedbugs, many of which require pretty strong chemicals and the family to bunk elsewhere while they are working.

I don't believe I have ever been bitten by bedbugs but I have been bitten by sand fleas that hatched in a carpet of a summer home where they had taken up residence over the winter, probably courtesy of a dog. Trust me, it was ugly, itchy and incredibly uncomfortable and yes, you do feel like bugs are everywhere.

Moral of the story? Don't buy real estate in NY without having it inspected by a bed bug sniffing dog--no joke this is legit advice--and even then, keep a watchful eye on your premises. While Ecker says that bedbugs "are not like fleas. They don't jump on you," once they move in it is really hard (and expensive) to get them to vacate the premises.