How Pickaway County Eliminated Bed Bugs After Two Years of Failure
A full-cycle case study in K9 detection, heat treatment, and verification for affordable housing in Circleville, Ohio.
Customer Overview
| Organization | Pickaway County Community Action (PICCA) |
| Contact | Paul Kidwell, Housing Director |
| Location | Circleville, Ohio (Pickaway County) |
| Portfolio | Multi-unit affordable housing complexes — 108 public housing units + elderly/disabled properties |
| Sector | Public housing authority / Community action agency |
The Problem: Two Years of Spraying, Zero Resolution
PICCA manages affordable housing in Circleville for some of Pickaway County's most vulnerable residents — elderly tenants, disabled individuals, and families in public housing. For two years, a traditional pest control company sprayed their units repeatedly. The infestations didn't stop. They spread.
Unit by unit, bed bugs moved through shared walls, laundry carts, and secondhand furniture. The pest control company operated on a complaint-response cycle: a tenant calls, a technician sprays, everyone moves on — until the next call.
The core problem with complaint-based response is that most infestations are invisible. A 2015 peer-reviewed study found that 71% of bed bug infestations go undetected under complaint-based protocols. If you only treat the units people report, you're ignoring the majority of the problem.
Chemical resistance made things worse. A 2025 Rutgers University study confirmed that 7 of 13 field-collected bed bug populations showed very high resistance to deltamethrin — one of the most common pesticides used in apartment treatments. In their testing, the best sprays achieved only 0–80% mortality. Spraying alone was never going to work.
Two years. Thousands of dollars. No resolution.
The Turning Point
Paul Kidwell, PICCA's Housing Director, started researching alternatives. He found NESDCA-certified K9 detection — dogs trained and tested to find live bed bugs and viable eggs with far greater accuracy than human visual inspection.
But detection alone wasn't enough. Several companies in Central Ohio offer detection dogs, but that's all they do — they detect, hand you a report, and you're left coordinating a separate company for treatment. Paul found M2 Exterminating: the only company in Central Ohio that combines K9 detection, treatment, and verification under one roof. One company. One call. No gaps. Read more about why that distinction matters in our detection vs. full-service comparison.
The Solution: Detect → Treat → Verify
M2 deployed a three-phase protocol across all of PICCA's housing complexes.
Phase 1: K9 Detection Sweep
NESDCA-certified K9 teams — handler Mike Posey and detection beagle Turbo — swept PICCA's complexes unit by unit. A University of Florida study (2008) found that trained detection dogs achieve a 97.5% positive indication rate, compared to just 17–30% for human visual inspection.
- • Found infestations in units with zero complaints
- • Inspected reported units AND adjacent units, common areas, and recently turned-over units
- • This building-wide approach aligns with HUD Notice H2012-5, which requires inspection of adjacent units when infestations are found
Phase 2: Targeted Treatment
Heat treatment raises room temperature to 120°F+ for 90+ minutes — lethal at all life stages. A 2023 study by Pereira et al. tested 5,400 bed bugs and confirmed 100% mortality. No heat-resistant bed bug strain has ever been documented. The EPA has endorsed heat as an effective bed bug treatment method.
- • Targeted chemical application provided residual protection after heat treatment
- • Every treatment dollar was precision-targeted based on K9 data — no wasted blanket spraying
Phase 3: K9 Re-Verification
Post-treatment K9 re-inspection of every treated unit plus adjacent units confirmed elimination and provided documentation for compliance records.
- • If dogs alert on re-inspection, M2 retreats immediately — same company, no scheduling delays
- • Full documentation trail for HUD audits and tenant communication
The Result
- All PICCA complexes went bed-bug-free. Every unit across 108+ public housing and elderly/disabled properties — clear.
- The two-year cycle of reactive spraying stopped. No more repeat visits, no more spreading infestations, no more wasted spend.
- M2 also resolved a cockroach infestation that another pest control company had been unable to eliminate.
“With the fabulous help of Turbo and M2 Bed Bugs, we can now say that we are currently Bed Bug FREE in all of our housing complexes. M2 was also able to assist us with the extermination of a Roach infestation that we had, that another pest control company was unable to exterminate. We are so pleased to be able to work with Turbo and M2 Bed Bugs.”
Paul Kidwell
Housing Director, Pickaway County Community Action Org, Inc.
Circleville, Ohio
Why This Matters for Other Housing Authorities
PICCA's story is not unique. The same dynamics — invisible infestations, chemical resistance, reactive protocols — play out across affordable housing portfolios throughout Ohio.
- The reactive model fails in multi-unit housing. 71% of infestations are invisible under complaint-based systems. You cannot spray your way out of a problem you cannot see.
- Pesticide resistance is getting worse. Columbus ranked #8 nationally for bed bug infestations (Orkin, 2025). The bugs in Central Ohio are not the same bugs from ten years ago.
- HUD compliance requires more than spraying. IPM plans, 24-hour response windows, adjacent-unit inspection, and documentation — Ohio bed bug laws and HUD guidelines demand a systematic approach.
- Proactive K9 monitoring prevents the next crisis. Scheduled sweeps catch infestations before they spread, reducing cost and liability.
About M2 Exterminating
M2 Exterminating is based in Lancaster, Ohio, serving Central and Southern Ohio within approximately 75 miles of Columbus. For over 10 years, M2 has specialized in NESDCA-certified K9 bed bug detection — the gold standard for canine scent detection.
- 9 handler/dog teams — 7 consecutive years NESDCA certified
- Detection dogs: Turbo (beagle, veteran), Sarge (miniature pinscher), Scamp (beagle), Jett (newest, in training)
- Led by handler Mike Posey
- The only Central Ohio company integrating K9 detection, treatment, and verification under one roof
Schedule a Free Portfolio Assessment
Find out how M2's detect-treat-verify model works for your properties.