By now we're all familiar with the resurgence of the bedbug problem over the last few years. Once relegated to only to the catchy "Good night, sleep tight…" rhyme for most of us, hotels and homes across the country – even high end ones – have unfortunately become a little more intimate with the nasty little creatures.

Interestingly, bedbugs are not in fact dangerous. They do not spread disease, and for almost everybody, their bites are annoying at most; they feed on human blood and their bites produce red welts that can itch severely. But, dangerous or not, no one is okay with co-habitating with bedbugs.

Especially in closely packed cities like New York, one person's infestation can mean that a whole apartment or condo unit is at risk. A recent New York Times article, A New Breed of Guard Dog Attacks Bedbugs, puts it this way: "In cities like New York, where neighbors are often separated only by bricks and mortar, one person’s infestation is everybody’s problem, since bedbugs can crawl through walls and along wiring and pipes, and hitchhike on clothing, furniture, luggage and more. In this city of 8.3 million, it seems as if everyone has a bedbug story."

As the problem of bedbugs grows, so have the ways to both detect them and deal with them once they are found. Bedbug-sniffing dogs, who are trained to detect the presence of live bugs and eggs, are in high demand – and they are surprisingly accurate: According to entomologists at the University of Florida, a well-trained dog can signal the presence of a single bug or egg with 96 percent accuracy. It's no wonder man's best friend has become the frontline in bedbug detection.

Confirming the presence of bedbugs is only the first step. Getting rid of them is no easy task – and it's expensive, as The High Cost of Bed Bugs describes. Protecting your home from bedbug infestations as much as is within your power is a logical proactive approach. See Five Ways to Bite Back at Bed Bugs for more information, and be sure to arm yourselves with Bed Bug Bedding, which is also available wholesale.