In a posh hotel in downtown D.C., Dixie, a beagle mix, is sniffing out bed bugs. She can find them in walls, under carpets, and mixed up with cockroaches inside a spinning training device. Mattresses, the most common hiding place for these seed-size suckers of human blood, pose little challenge.

“She only gets fed if she finds a bed bug,” says her trainer and handler, Blaine Lessard, as he reaches into his belted pouch for a piece of kibble. Read More "How To Figure Out If You Have Bed Bugs: Get This Dog To Come Over" »

The District's Department of Health, doubtless egged on by this Washington City Paper expose on bed bugs, is holding a citywide summit on the scourge. And scourge it is. Anecdotal evidence from around the city suggests that these little critters are on the uprise, on the move from one unit of housing to the next. They drive people nuts, too, turning them into insane over-users of laundry equipment, diesel fuel, heat guns, and the like. It's madness out there on city mattresses!

The summit is skedded for March 27 from 10:00 am to 3 pm at 441 4th Street NW, Room 1107. Get ready for a "dialogue on creative and effective approaches to dealing with bedbugs."