LEWISTON — Maine pest control companies are getting serious about bedbugs, using dogs to sniff them out and heat to eradicate them.

Lewiston landlord Ron LeBlanc says the bedbug problem has been growing in Maine’s second-largest city and insecticides aren’t 100 percent effective. So he and his business partner took the matter into their own hands, spending $65,000 on a machine designed to superheat infested homes and kill the bedbugs without chemicals.

Atlantic Pest Solutions sometimes uses dogs to sniff the precise location of the bugs. It, too, can superheat homes. Bedbugs can’t survive temperatures over 113 degrees.

The Sun Journal says state law requires landlords to notify prospective renters if there are bedbugs in nearby units, and banning rentals of infested units.

 


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