"A keen sense of smell:" Batzner Pest Control uses trained dogs to sniff out bed bugs

NEW BERLIN -- Their keen sense of scent helps them find drugs, bombs and even people. But recently canine's are being utilized as a detective when it comes to pest control.

"The dog will stop and scratch the source of where the bed bugs are, then we do a visible inspecting to confirm bed bugs there," said Glen Bishop, Batzner Pest Control canine handler.

Batzner Pest Control canine

Bishop, a canine handler, says the company uses dogs as detectives.

"The bed bug detection dogs are trained to find live bed bugs and the viable eggs," said Bishop.

Glen Bishop

Within moments, Lucy the beagle located vials of bed bugs that were planted.

"Our dogs are bout 97% accurate," said Bishop.

Far more accurate than human inspectors.

"They have a keen sense of smell which we do not have, which allows them to enter an area and be able to detect things which would take a long time for someone to visually cue on," said Steve Counsell, Batzner Pest Control.

Batzner Pest Control canine

Lucky and the three other dogs at Batzner Pest Control have been pretty busy lately.

"The summertime seems to be especially busy with people traveling," said Bishop.

Those pesky bugs are often found in couches and mattresses in your home, but they most likely hitchhike from social environments like movie theaters, buses and of course hotel rooms.

"They will travel on people on their clothing, you can pick them up anywhere," said Bishop.

Batzner Pest Control canine

If you pick them up, thankfully Lucy can pick up the scent before the problem spreads, helping you get treatment fast.

"We are here to help," said Counsell.