South Korea deploys sniffer dog to screen for bedbugs after Paris Olympics

Leading the campaign is a two-year-old beagle named Ceco, who pest control company Cesco said is the first and so far only canine trained in the country to detect the odour of pheromones, the chemicals released by bedbugs.

Ceco is capable of sweeping a standard hotel room in under two minutes, company official Kim Min-su said.

The pest control company has teamed up with South Korea’s ministries of security and transport, as well as the Disease Control and Prevention Agency, and is working with airlines and Incheon airport to screen travellers on arrival.

Last year, authorities in Paris raced to contain a nationwide panic over bedbugs as the city geared up for the Olympics, worried that the tiny wingless critters might ruin the event and conducted a campaign to root out any infestation.