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.
Where are Nicki and Malamar today? They are heading to Brighton, MA to determine if these people's grandson brought bed bugs into their house again. Yes, again. A year ago, the same thing happened and it turned out they had to heat-treat their entire house. So a few weeks ago when the 24-year old was over for a visit, he scratched himself all over on the couch
in the living room. The grandparents suspect bed bugs again. I will inform you of the outcome...
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!
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