South Korea deploys bedbug sniffer dog after Paris Games

After an impressive haul of 13 gold medals, South Korea has deployed a specialist sniffer dog to ensure its Olympic athletes, officials and fans are not returning with any less welcome souvenirs.
Ceco, a two-year-old beagle, is on duty at Incheon airport, about 20 miles outside Seoul, to sniff out any bedbugs that might have accompanied those returning from the Paris Games.
The only sniffer dog in South Korea specially trained to detect bedbugs, Ceco can sweep a hotel room in less than two minutes, according to the pest control firm Cesco, which is working with airlines and the government.
“Ceco has a brain area for detecting the pheromone scent specific to bedbugs that is about 40 times larger than [in] humans, so the accuracy in locating bedbugs based on the scent is over 95 per cent,” a spokesman said.
Before Ceco’s deployment, a South Korean official said: “As the global community is gathering in Paris, France, on the occasion of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, there’s a chance bedbugs will enter the country following the event.
“Therefore, we are taking a pre-emptive response to intercept the entry through the Incheon International Airport, which is the main gateway to the country.” Ceco and his handlers are due to be on guard at Incheon until September 8.
Bedbugs, which can be found on furniture and bedding, have previously been a source of alarm in both France and South Korea.
After reports of bedbugs in Parisian hotels and rental apartments, videos of the insects on public transport and in cinemas began circulating on social media in the latter half of last year. Some experts dismissed the furore as hysteria, while others expressed concerns about the city’s readiness to host millions of visitors for the Olympics.
There have since been suggestions that the panic was deliberately engineered by Russia to weaken President Macron in the lead-up to this year’s European elections.
A similar outbreak hit South Korea in October last year, with videos circulated on social media of bedbugs at hotels, in trains and in jjimjilbangs (bathhouses), sparking a large-scale disinfestation campaign.