Photo Credit:  dingo.care2.com 

Dixie, the bed bug sniffing dog, is proving once again that you cannot live without us.  This beagle-Jack Russell terrier mix has been trained to sniff out bed bugs—even a couple of the gnarly critters can’t escape her acute olifactory equipment.  If she finds them, she sits.  When she sits, you have fits, but at least you know where you stand, err, where not to lie down in the interim.

Her handler, Dale Blessard, told NPR, “"The only reason for her to sit on the job like that is when she finds bugs," Lessard says. "She's always right on the money."

In the story on NPR, Dixie found the offending critters in a child’s backback.  Yes, mom, that is your cue to freak out now.

What to do other than freak out and move to Siberia?  Improvements in post-DDT bed bug removal techniques mean you no longer have to burn down your house or apartment—although that remains among the most sure-fire techniques for bed bud eradication.

However, I have no idea what these improvements are, or how they work.  It’s nice to know that in very affluent areas, middle-of-the-street mattress fires are almost a thing of the past.  It gives people a reason to continue to aspire to wealth in an age when wealth is no longer “fun.”

First-line protection seems to be only a sniff away as soon as you get Fido signed on to his new training regimen.

We truly are “friends with benefits!”

Lurve,

Hgurl