How to identify flea bites and bed bug bites

Both bed bugs and fleas can be intensely itchy and can leave multiple bites. The bites can be irritating and embarrassing.

Now that the weather has turned cooler, fleas are a common pet care concern. The fleas are looking to survive the winter by hopping aboard your cat or dog and settling in for the winter nestled in your pet’s hair, bed or carpeting. It can be difficult to avoid getting fleas on your dog as they are regularly outside and going for a walk. The same is true of outdoor cats. There is preventative treatment that is available through your veterinarian that stops fleas in their tracks and involves putting a drop of liquid on the haunches, or back of the head.

Just like you and me, bed bugs are stuck at home with nowhere to go and nothing to do but to eat, sleep and make babies. Unfortunately, that eating part involves you. Often, couples sharing a bed will have one person getting all the bites and the other person showing now signs of bites. Sorry, but your blood is just damned delicious.

My sister and I would be sitting at a fire in the summer and she would swell up whenever a mosquito bit her and I would rarely get bitten and then not really feel the bite for very long. This is why it makes bed bugs so hard to diagnose.

Although fleas can transmit some diseases, such as flea-borne typhus it is not likely to happen. And, just like lice, bed bugs do not typically spread disease. But in any case, bed bugs, lice and fleas are annoying and can wreak havoc on your sanity.

Being able to tell the difference between fleas and bed bugs is key to getting rid of them. Read on to learn how to identify different bites, and what to do next.

How to identify flea and bed bug bites

Fleas love hair so they can hide. They also know exactly where on your pet they want to be, which are the places where you cat or dog cannot scratch easily, around the neck and the base of the tail. You pet can easily scratch their ears but not the neckline and have no way of reaching that favouite spot just at the base of the tail.

Generally, fleas prefer your pet for dinner but, should you go on holiday and send Fluffy for boarding, the fleas have no one to feast on. This means that when you return home, they are ravenous. They will be living in your carpets, baseboards and cracks in your floor. As you walk into your home, they are going to sense your arrival and immediately jump onto your legs to bite. As soon as your pet arrives back home, they are going to jump back on them and hide in the fur.

If you are experiencing bites only on your lower legs and own a cat or dog, fleas might be the reason. But don’t rule out bed bugs yet.

Bed bugs prefer to suck the blood of humans from areas without any hair, so you are unlikely to find bites on your head. Unless, of course, you sport that ever attractive shiny shaven head.

Other bites

Fleas and bed bugs are not the only creatures that can bite. Some signs that something else might be the culprit include the fact that:

• Only one bite: A single bite could indicate a spider bite or an ant bite.
• Several pink, swollen bites in different areas: This might indicate mosquito bites.
• The area is painful and swollen, or it has a stinger in it: This could indicate a bee sting or a sting by another stinging insect.

 How to tell if you have fleas or bed bugs at home

People who experience bed bug bites do not necessarily have bed bugs living in their home. For example, bites may occur after a trip to a house or hotel infested with bed bugs.

However, there is a fair chance that if a person has stayed in a location with bed bugs, they may have brought some home.

Signs of a bed bug infestation in the home include:

• Visible bed bugs: These may appear as tiny bugs or dots in the folds of sheets or pillowcases or in the seams of a mattress.
• Bed bug exoskeletons: These crunchy looking bed bug shells may be visible in or around the bed.
• Bed bug feces: These tiny, black smears may appear on the sheets or mattress.
• An unusual odor: There may be a sweet or musty odor coming from the mattress or sheets.

Some signs that there are fleas in the home include:

• Visible fleas: There may be visible fleas on a family pet, or tiny jumping insects in the home.
• Visible flea eggs: These clear or yellowish flecks may be visible on the pet’s fur.
• Visible flea feces: These dark black specks that feel like sand may be visible in a pet’s fur or on their bedding.
• Changes in the pet’s behavior: The pet may become unusually itchy or anxious.
• Changes in the pet’s health: In the worst-case scenario, the pet may develop anemia rom excessive blood loss due to fleabites. If this is the case, their gums may appear pale. A pet with anemia requires veterinary attention.

It is possible for you to have both fleas and bed bugs can be present in a home at the same time. Whatever is biting you, you will want to deal with as soon as possible. At Bed Bugs Dead Bugs, we can help you with a heat treatment that will kill bed bugs and fleas.

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