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Bug-Sniffing Dogs To The Rescue!

DETROIT (WWJ) - With a growing number of bed bug infestations in recent years, more people turn to the exterminator ... but a few go to the dogs.

WWJ Newsradio 950 spoke with Sam Leggit who runs a business using specially-trained scent detection dogs to locate bed bugs.

"The trainer that our company uses is a former U.S. Customs dog and handler trainer," said Leggit. "So, you're training a team of a dog and a person, the handler, to go through this pattern ... we have to find the right dog and, in some cases, the right handler."

Leggit's company, Mystic Glen of Michigan, works with hotels, apartments, schools, health care facilities, movie theaters and other businesses found to have infestations.

"These bugs like to go anywhere where people will go and hang out for any period of time," he said.

As for the success rate, Leggit points to study done at the University of Florida which found that dogs have a 97 percent accuracy rate in detecting even the earliest stages of a bed bug problem.

WWJ Technology Editor Matt Roush spoke with Leggit at the Google "Michigan Get Your Business Online" event in Detroit:

Bug-Sniffing Dogs

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