So how on earth can you tell if the place you are sleeping has bed bugs?
Bed bugs are elusive and usually nocturnal, which can make them hard to spot. They often lodge unnoticed in dark crevices, and eggs can be nestled in fabric seams. Aside from bite symptoms, signs include fecal spots, blood smears on sheets, and molts.
Bed bugs can be detected by their characteristic smell of rotting raspberries. Bed bug detection dogs are trained to pinpoint infestations, based upon tests conducted under controlled conditions, researchers have shown accuracies of 97.5%. The success rates in these tests may not reflect real-world conditions but it's pretty impressive nonetheless.
Our four legged friends can often detect in a matter of minutes where a pest controller might need an hour. In the United States, about 100 dogs were being used to find bed bugs as of mid-2009.
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