BBC Breakfast’s Jon Kay issues grim warning to fans as sniffer dog is brought into studio
BBC Breakfast presenter Jon Kay issued a grim warning to fans earlier this week when he brought a sniffer dog into the studio.
While Jon, 53, was presenting the breakfast show on Tuesday, he and his co-host Sally Nugent welcomed a dog who is trained to sniff out bedbugs onto the show.
This comes after the rising number of bedbug infestations which have been reported in the U.K. over recent weeks.
Jon admitted that the concerns about the insects’ increased presence had reached the BBC studio, so they decided to take action during Tuesday morning’s show.
Jon, and Sally, 52, welcomed bedbug sniffing dog Kobie, an adorable black and white spaniel, and his handler Gary Jakeman onto the show.
Gary revealed that he has two dogs, Kobie and Milo, who he’s trained to sniff out the annoying little insects.
“They are trained exactly the same way a police dog would detect drugs, firearms, money, any type of contraband.”
Gary, Kobie and Milo are regularly employed for businesses like hotels, as well as homeowners, who are concerned about bedbugs on their property.
As Jon was introducing Gary and Kobie to the programme, he explained that bedbugs can live in all kinds of furniture, including sofas, so while Kobie was in the studio, he had a good sniff around.
Jon nervously asked Gary, “Has he found some, then?” while Gary said, “He’s having a sniff around.”
“He hasn’t gone for the sofa, which I’m very, very relieved about!” Sally added happily.
After the show, Jon took to Instagram, posting a recap of Kobie’s time on the show.
“Kobie, the spaniel can hunt out bedbugs… [nervous emoji, bug emoji],” he said alongside his new furry friend.
However, he confirmed in the next post that there were no insects to be found hiding in the Beeb’s red sofa.
The concern about the presence of bedbugs in the studio comes as a result of the growing numbers of infestations being reported throughout the country.
While on the show, Gary put this down to the amount of people who have been travelling since lockdown.
“There’s a lot more international travel going on … there’s a lot more people on the move,” he said, adding that hotspots for the bugs are countries like Greece and France.
However, he said the infestations in Britain are not really anything new.
“There’s always been in the U.K. We’ve lived with bedbugs for thousands of years,” he said.