FAQ
Residential
Q. : Do bed bugs carry diseases?
R. : There has been no report of disease attributable to a bed bug to date. However, the presence of bed bugs in your home may cause insomnia, anxiety, stress, and isolation.
Q. : How do I know if I have bed bugs in my home?
R. : You will usually have itchy tiny red spots on your skin. These spots are often found in large numbers, in small groups, or arranged in a straight line.
Q. : What visible signs point to the presence of bed bugs?
R. : You should look for small blood spots the size of a pinhead on your sheets.
R. : You will notice small black spots on the sheets and the seams of the mattress. These spots come from bed bug excrement.
Q. : How did I contaminate my home with bed bugs?
R. : You may have brought bed bugs or a bed bug egg home if you stayed in a hospital, at a hotel or a cottage, went to the movies, visited a friend or daycare, took a train or sat on a couch at a retirement home.
R. : You may have taken a piece of furniture home, like a couch, a chair, a lamp or a frame.
R. : You may have purchased clothes at a second-hand clothing store.
R. : You may have used a moving truck that had bed bugs in it.
R. : The apartment you just moved into already had bed bugs.
Q. : Do bed bugs prefer unsanitary environments?
R. : Absolutely not, they prefer whatever place humans live in, as humans are their sole source of food.
Q. : Is it possible that I get bitten, and my partner shows no symptoms?
R. : Some people have little or no reaction to bed bug bites. Moreover, women get bitten more often than men.
Q. : How long can bed bugs live without feeding themselves?
R. : Based on our experience training dogs with live bed bugs, we noticed some bed bugs were still alive 18 months after capturing them.
Q. : How do dogs detect bed bugs?
R. : Dogs have one of the best senses of smell among mammals. They can detect odours as weak as one part per trillion (1/1,000,000,000,000) even in the presence of thousands of other odours. Bed bugs emit a particular smell that is easy for a dog with proper training from a dog handler to detect, making it easier for the dog to find bed bugs in a room.
Q. : Are dogs more efficient in detecting bed bugs than extermination experts?
R. : According to the Journal of Economic Entomology (2014, Vol. 107 No. 6), properly trained detection dogs can detect bed bugs with 98% accuracy. Specialized technicians perform visual detections with 35% accuracy.
Q. : How do dogs react when they detect a bed bug?
R. : They sit.
Q. : Should I throw my mattress away?
R. : You don’t have to. However, if you chose to get rid of your mattress, be sure to apply the appropriate treatment—either by chemical or thermal treatment—to reduce the risk of contaminating the building when carrying your mattress across the hall.
Q. : Should I inform my landlord of the presence of bed bugs in my apartment?
R. : According to Quebec’s Public Health Department, “you must immediately inform the owner of your building, don’t try to solve the problem yourself, prepare your apartment for extermination by following the exterminator’s instructions”. According to the City of Montreal’s website: “If the landlord doesn’t do anything, the tenant must report the situation by calling 311, or report to the borough’s point of service”.
Q. : Should the landlord call an exterminator if I have bed bugs in my apartment?
R. : According to Quebec’s Public Health Department, landlords must immediately contact a certified exterminator as soon they are notified of the presence of bed bugs.
Accommodation—Multiplex
Q. : How many apartments are detected per hour?
R. : In the case of hotels, Elite K9’s team can normally detect between 20 and 30 rooms per hour.
R. : In the case of multiplexes, retirement homes, and others, Elite K9 can normally detect between 15 and 20 units per hour. Request a quote for a more accurate cost estimate.
Q. : Are you affiliated with an exterminator?
R. : We are not affiliated with any other extermination or treatment firm. Accordingly, our sole focus is on carrying out a fair and accurate detection.
Q. : How often should preventive inspections be carried out to greatly reduce the risk of infestation?
R. : Choose among our services according to your needs.
Q. : Do you provide a visual proof of bed bugs detected?
R. : We could, but our dogs often detect bed bug eggs or larvae, which are almost invisible to the naked eye—hence the 66% margin of error in visual inspections carried out by an exterminator. To decrease the 2% margin of error per dog, we send a second dog to inspect the site, following which the margin of error falls to practically zero.
Q. : How do dogs react when they detect a bed bug?
R. : They sit.
Q. : Should the landlord call an exterminator if I have bed bugs in my apartment?
R. : According to Quebec’s Public Health Department, landlords must immediately contact a certified exterminator as soon they are notified of the presence of bed bugs.