THE BED BUG HUNTERS IN THE NEWS!

Business is booming for Scout, the bedbug detecting dog.

Scout is a certified bedbug detection dog who's been very busy lately as those creepy crawlers are found more and more in hotels, movie theatres and homes.

"They don't fly or jump, but they have everybody really freaking out," Doug Moore of North American Bed Bug Hunters.

And that's where Scout and his owner come in.

Operating a company called the North American Bed Bug Hunters out of Titusville, handler Doug Moore and his highly trained beagle go to work.

"We are working together as a team. I lead him around the room and he signals to me when he picks up the presence of the odor of the live bed bugs or bed bug eggs by scratching at the location where he picks up the scent," Moore said.

Scout's motivation is food. It's his reward for finding the bedbugs and his nose can detect them whether they're nymphs, eggs or full-grown bugs.

"The accuracy of the dogs trained by this methodology is 97.5%," Moore said.

The sign on the car comes off because people are embarrassed about having bed bugs, but Doug thinks there shouldn't be a stigma.

"It's not related to dirtiness, it's more related to clutter and also traveling. That's why we're seeing a preponderance of bedbug infestation because they are great hitch hikers and they'll travel home with you no matter what your social status is," Moore said.

Moore says it doesn't matter whether you live in a fancy home or public housing.

Because bed bugs are increasingly resistant to pesticides, Moore expects he and Scout will be busy for a long time.

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...Doug Moore, owner of North American Bed Bug Hunters, LLC, and his beagle, Scout, can sniff out bed bugs before infestations get too large before so extermination techniques can be pinpointed. He called his system more environmentally friendly canine.

Moore also dismisses talk that America’s growing bed bug problem is being overblown in media reports. America needs more stories on bed bugs, he said. “Until we get the public awareness increased, we’ll see a lot more infestations. Infestations spread because people just don’t realize how mobile they are and the ability they have to hitch hike,” he said.

Moore likened the flat, reddish brown bugs to vampires.

“They come out in the early morning hours, inject you with anticoagulant and anesthesia and then they take a blood meal,” Moore said. Moore said an average adult bed bug is about the size of an apple seed.

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