Using K9 Bed Bug Dogs in Senior Living !

Having so many people living close together and a fair amount of social contact can make for a frustrating scenario.

Imagine being the manager of a 300 unit Senior complex in Atlanta. You have tenants, healthcare workers, employees, deliveries, etc

And now we have a bed bug issue. How many units are active ? If so, where did they come from and when ?

I get these calls all the time. Why does it matter ? It matters a lot.

The very first thing they should do is get a Sensor Dog K9 Sweep. The first time it is implemented some have questions or concerns because they've never seen the K9's work. Their sense of smell is their main sense. We are vision oriented. We even use it in our speech.

"You should have seen that lady on the bus this morning". If the dog could talk he would say "You should have smelled that lady on the bus this morning"

Lily and Starsky waiting to work !

Their abilities to filter and distinguish smells are why they have been used for hunting for thousands of years.

We simply introduce them to bed bugs at an early age. Their life revolves around finding these insects and are rewarded for doing their exercises correctly. We simulate real scenarios and mix in other insects and monitor the exercises. Just like learning anything we start simple, keep it positive and build on that. Some progress faster than others. We have a training center with all kinds of furniture setups for exercises and training. After many exercises they just get more efficient and it's fun for them. We have one that is so proud he gives a great look when he finds them. "Look what I did". We play "spin the wheel" among many other exercises to keep them calibrated to respond to only live bugs or viable eggs.

Spin the Wheel is a fun game for the dogs.

We currently have 5 K9's and the handler works with all of them and switches them in and out like a ball team. That way we are always using a fresh dog but can still sweep about 200 units a day. After the sweep we will be able to tell you the infested units. When we get a response for bed bugs we examine and note visual evidence. The K9's put us right in top of them but we verify activity. This takes the guesswork out.

Why spend money treating units with no bed bugs ? In most cases once a client uses the service they see the value and ask if we can set up a quarterly sweep ? Yes. We have many Senior complexes on our Quarterly sweep program. By not knowing what's going on spread of bed bugs happens . If we sweep quarterly there's not enough time for spread to occur before we find them and eradicate. This program can save you thousands of dollars in unnecessary treatments.

We offer our services to any Licensed Pest Operators also. We have many operators that bring the K9's in to help them solve problems.

Just saw a news story where they were found in a patients room at a local hospital. Recently another one at a library in Athens.

In both cases they have been brought in. When ? By who ?

We had one scenario where we traced it down to the healthcare workers coming in.

3 out of 18 had bed bugs at their homes. The company helped those 3 get their homes treated Which I thought was very smart. We have been brought in to clean up heavy infestations and are always successful. Always. We are smarter than bed bugs. 😎

Treatments - We are aligned with Clark Pest Remedy for treatments in the Atlanta and Macon areas. They use All Electric Heat Equipment that is engineered for bed bug remediation.

The unit is heated up to 135 degrees and heaters are placed strategically. Also many fans are used to distribute the heat. For heavy and moderate cases we also use some sprays and dusts to help contain and give some residual.

Give us a Call at 770-957-1915 if you have any questions.

We Service the Atlanta, Macon areas and can give pricing per unit. gclark@clarkpestremedy.com. 678-873-5785