Nicki doing a bed bug inspection of 20 cots for this 4-stars hotel in Boston. She alerted for bed bugs on 2 cots. A not so ideal environment for a canine bed bug inspection, since it happened in the hotel's garage with cars driving by and having to move the cots around to make room. People were coming in and out as well. Can you imagine the air movement in this place. Nicki made sure to sniff out every inch of these cots to make sure she did not miss any bed bugs.
Inspected a couple of rooms in the Altzheimer's wing of this Senior retirement and care facility near Billerica MA. We also were tasked to inspect a hallway with some chairs and couches as well as a living/TV room area.
According to the executive director, a nurse had found on 2 occasions within a short timespan a bed bug crawling on this poor old woman's clothing, once in her room and once in the hallway on the couch.
The inspection resulted in no alerts, which brought a huge sigh of relief for the executive director. However, she wanted to know what else she could do to prevent an infestation from going out of control.
I suggested to have a candid talk with the family of this elder woman as most likely someone in the family keeps bringing in bedbugs when visiting. And to offer to have an inspection of their home conducted as well as have their home treated if needed, all of this at the expense of the facility. Think about it! In the end, the facility will save a lot of money getting to the source of the problem and helping with the cost of treatment rather than wait for an infestation to get out of control.
I was pleased to see that she wholeheartedly agreed with me.
This week, we have been booked solid with jobs in Peabody, Newburyport, Rockport, Chestnut Hill and Needham.
We were on our way back home past the last Framingham exit on the Pike before 495 yesterday at 3:30 PM when we got a call from a luxury hotel in Boston, asking us to conduct an inspection of 15 floors "now": bedrooms, housekeepers' carts, trash rooms and the loading dock that still was holding some of the linen carts a truck had recently delivered. Unfortunately, the hotel got notice a bit late that some of the linen carts may be infested with bed bugs. They had already distributed the linens to the housekeepers on several floors. So we had to turn around and conducted the inspection until late that evening.
Congrats go to our partners, Nicki and Malamar who were very good sports in conducting this search late that day after 2 jobs already performed since the early morning. They did a fantastic job. Best employees I ever had!
It just dawned on me what it means for a dog to sniff out areas and items for a total of 5 hours a day.
I said 5 hours because that amount of time is on average what a dog is able to handle in a day without losing "sniffing" performance.
To translate this performance in human terms, imagine having to find a needle in a haystack for 5 hours straight - wouldn't you get blurry-eyed after a while. Wouldn't you have to remind yourself mentally and repeatedly what it is you are looking for??
If you still can't relate to this situation, how about being locked in a small dark room with the directive of having to listen for the sound of a needle falling 8 feet or so away from you on the distant floor. And keeping scores of how many times you heard it fall in the course of 5 hours.
That is very similar to what my dogs are doing on 5-hours or so day-long assignments. The good news is that they are dogs and by nature, they love to please you, their master.
I am receiving more and more calls from people who want to make sure that the pesticide or heat treatment against bed bugs did indeed eliminate them. Here come Nicki and Malamar to the rescue, providing peace of mind to these people. I feel for these people because once you have dealt with a bed bug infestation, it is difficult to feel confident that they are indeed gone. I have been a victim myself and know the psychological ordeal.
Our dogs are great at providing peace of mind to people who are still in doubt. No matter how much I am trying to tell these people that most likely there is no longer a problem, they just want the dogs to sniff and tell them.
July has been very busy so far and we have even been asked to do an inspection of the 4th. I guess, bed bugs don't care about the 4th of July as a holiday.
Hope you had a bed bug free 4th of July!
Chestnut Hill to be precise! Top notch apartment complex. Me and Malamar, we love these kinds of environment. Clean, vacuumed, clutter in some units - but organized-, ahh! we love to sniff out those places.
The old ladies were so nice even though some called us "nice pooch". I'm not a pooch! I'm the Regal Beagle and Malamar is the e-Nergetic Jack-a-be. If anything, Malamar is the pooch, not me! I'm pure-blood, I seem to remember.
But we enjoyed the sniffing around. In one of those units, the mother refused to step out of the apartment with her 3 kids.
News to me!
So, here I am performing my sniffing duties in one of the girls's bedroom, when suddenly the door opens and the little girl shouts "these are my toys! Don't touch them" .
Well, I beg to differ, but occasionally I will un-intentionally touch items with my nose because I am so focused on finding these bed bugs that I cannot, Read-My-Sniffs, stop in my endeavor to localize them.
My handler came to my rescue. I love her. And the little girl got comforted with a nice nudge and plenty of attention from me at the conclusion of the inspection.
I love my job...
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