Bedbug-detection dog sniffs out critters at Central Library

The 2 1/2-year-old beagle, Oklahoma's only certified bedbug-detection dog, was called to Tulsa from Norman on Wednesday to sniff out bedbugs at the 135,000-square-foot Central Library, at Fourth Street and Denver Avenue.

The buff-and-white canine was greeted by news cameras, microphones and reporters asking her owner, Glen Collymore, all about how she sniffs out the elusive pests.

But then it was time for Liberty to go to work.

"She's here to help the people of Tulsa," said Gary Shaffer, chief executive officer of the Tulsa City-County Library system.

By 7:45 p.m., Liberty - as her owners call her - had rooted through all four of the library's floors, and library spokesman John Fancher said the bugs had not been found outside the area where they were first discovered.

Just before noon Tuesday, a customer showed a library staffer that he had been bitten by bedbugs while sitting in a chair in the periodicals section on the third floor.

Later in the day, officials announced that bedbugs had been found in several chairs in a 1,000-square-foot area. All the chairs were removed and replaced with vinyl and metal chairs, Fancher said.

Officials immediately closed the facility and called in an extermination service to assess the situation, Shaffer said.

Fancher said Wednesday that the downtown library would remain closed through Thursday, when a pest control company will treat the building. The library will reopen Friday.

While the possibility exists that the critters could ride home with someone in a book, it is unlikely, said Mario Echeverria with Rove Pest Control in Tulsa.

Read more from the original source:
Bedbug-detection dog sniffs out critters at Central Library