Dogs Who Hunt Bedbugs: The Nose Knows ... Most of the Time

Nov. 12, 2010— -- From the swankiest hotels to the dingiest motels, from luxury high-rise condos to dilapidated, multi-family homes, from schools to theaters to clothing stores, the infestation of creepy, crawly bedbugs continues to plague cities across the country.

In some, the bedbug problem is reaching epidemic proportions. Calls to exterminating companies are said to be up at least 50 percent from last year.

This week, entomologists and other bug experts descended on New York City to look for solutions. New York is considered by some health experts to be the epicenter of the infestation. But all across the country, four-legged experts of a different kind have been hard at work trying to sniff out the tiny, repugnant, creatures.

Take Roscoe, for example. He is a lemon beagle who tracks down bedbugs in the New York area and has become something of a celebrity. He even has his own Facebook page where he tells us, "This past July, I appeared on Animal Planet. I am in 3 TV-commercials that run in the NY Metro area." Roscoe has also appeared on TV talk shows to show off his talent.

Rescued from a Florida dog pound, Roscoe was trained at the Florida Canine Academy to hunt down bedbugs, and now works for a pest control company in New Jersey. With his human handler, Peter Mattiace, close by, Roscoe sniffs everything in his target area; beds, chairs, dressers, clothing, carpets and any place a bedbug might call home. He can smell them with that hyper-sensitive nose beagles have. When he does, Roscoe gives a healthy snort as if to clear his snout, sits down and repeatedly points his nose at the offending area.