If Robert Gallo uses the traditional method, scouring a room for bed bugs can take a couple of hours. And in the end, he only has a 30 percent accuracy rate.

Toby goes to work, sniffing bed bugs out of couches, mattresses, carpets and more, at a success rate of 90 percent. (photo courtesy of Round the Clock Pet Control)

But if Gallo unleashes the hounds, they can wrap up a room in 30 minutes with a 90 percent accuracy rate.

Without using dogs, “I would have to tear the room apart,” he said.

Gallo is the owner of Round the Clock Pest Control Inc., a pest control service that deploys beagles to prevent and identify bed bug infestations. Established in 2003, Round the Clock has gone from 10 jobs in its first year to more than 5,000 so far this year, Gallo said.

“That kind of tells you how the problem’s growing,” he said. “We’re getting a little bit of everything. I enjoy the work, but I also like helping people out.”

Currently, the business has approximately 10 employees with three beagles, which undergo daily training. Gallo said the dogs, which are all rescued, only eat when they find bed bugs. That’s not to say the beagles go without eating, however. If they don’t find the insects throughout the course of the business day, employees hide the bugs in a training facility at the office that resembles a hotel room, and the dogs are appropriately rewarded.

“You have to keep them sharp and trained that way,” Gallo said.

He said the dogs’ heightened sense of smell helps them locate the bed bugs. Gallo explains it like this: If someone is baking a chocolate cake and a human walks in the door, the human smells chocolate cake. If a dog walks in, it can smell all the various ingredients.

“He can break it down to flour,” Gallo said. “They can narrow it down to just one bed bug.”

He has been in the pest control business for several years, but he didn’t use dogs until working with one particular set of clients, who spent three months battling bed bugs. Gallo said he couldn’t find the insects on the first try, but then spotted them later when he was called back.

“I would have been able to find the problem three months earlier,” he said, adding that he purchased his first dog, Toby, shortly thereafter. “It has helped us tremendously.”

Prior to purchasing Toby, Gallo had heard of termite dogs, but not bed bug dogs. He stumbled upon them while researching further ways to deter the tiny insects. Gallo said he visited a company on the East Coast to see their dogs in action before he brought the idea to Los Angeles.

Before being linked with an owner, the dogs go through 800 to 1,000 hours of training, he said. Round the Clock employees train with them for an additional four days, and then they are put into action, with daily training a part of their everyday agenda, Gallo said.

Since its inception, Round the Clock has worked throughout Southern California, including West Hollywood, Los Angeles, San Diego and Long Beach. Gallo said the business does some residential jobs, but a significant portion of its time is spent providing services to hotels and apartment buildings.

He said that once bed bugs are identified, Round the Clock can use different measures to eradicate them, including chemical and steam treatments, heat, freezing and fumigation.

Furthermore, Gallo said some of his clients opt to have regular inspections to keep the bugs at bay. He said early detection is the best way to prevent the problem from escalating, referencing a 200-unit apartment complex that waited almost two years before calling in a specialist on bed bugs. By then, the problem had spread to 68 units.

“They didn’t know what to do,” Gallo said.

The cost of the inspections and treatments vary. For information, visit www.rountheclockpestcontrol.com.