RENO, NV - With layoffs and certain jobs disappearing locally, many people are looking for or creating a second career. It could mean opening a new business. One local man hopes to make money sniffing out a problem that’s becoming more and more common here in Northern Nevada.

These days former construction worker Lou Parker's thoughts have turned from the building trades to something more lucrative-bed bugs.

And if you ask exterminator Kevin Schmidt there are worse ways to make a living.

“When I first started never heard of the bed bud other than don't let the bed bugs bite. They are called hitch hikers is what they like to say, they get on our clothes, they will jump off and start to next somewhere,” says Schmidt who is with Desert Root Pest Control.

But unlike Schmidt who uses chemicals to treat bed bugs, Parker uses treats and his two family dogs to locate bed bugs in homes and businesses.

“He's not barking he's not scratching he's going to sit and put his nose to the target and say here it is,” says Lou Parker whose new business is called The Dog Knows.

He brings his dogs, Copper and Whiskey to an abandoned mattress and box spring to see if they detect bed bugs. The pesky critters feed off of human blood and can hide in material and creases within the mattress

While neither dog finds bed bugs, Parker places small containers of the blood suckers within the mattress to show you how the dog does react when he indeed does locate them.

Parker says he wants to work with local properties and homeowners to detect bedbug infestations, and then collaborate with pest control companies to get rid of them.
A happy dog and unmarked car he says makes the entire operation as discrete as possible.

In Florida alone 30,000 hotel rooms are screened for bed bugs this way. Parker says if he could do just half of that number, he'd be a happy man.