What Do Bed Bugs And Fleas Look Like
Bed bugs do not fly or jump.
What do bed bugs and fleas look like. While bed bugs are commonly found in a home mattress and furniture fleas usually infest furry hosts like cats and dogs bed bugs and fleas are both parasitic insects that can cause severe problems to humans ranging from itchy bites or rashes to psychological effects. On the east coast homeowners with jumping bugs usually see fleas or springtails. What do fleas look like. They are small reddish brown and oval shaped.
The flea s flattened body may help you tell them apart from springtails but as bed bugs also sport this body shape it won t be of much help. Fleas prefer to feed on hairy animals like dogs and cats while bed bugs prefer to get straight to the skin of humans. Bed bugs are most commonly found in mattresses and furniture or nooks and crannies around the home such as gaps in your bed frame while fleas inhabit the furry animals in your household and do not feed exclusively on humans as bed bugs do. You may not see them during the day because they hide in dark places.
Other tiny bugs that can easily be ruled out because they do not jump at all are bed bugs and ants. A flea infestation is caused by a host animal unknowingly carrying the fleas indoors. Bed bugs don t like light so they can be found in dark crevices during the day but may venture out when it gets dark. Like fleas bedbugs also survive on blood.
Bed bugs are flightless and though fleas are as well fleas have the annoying ability to jump high in the air without warning making them hard to catch and kill. Fleas are oval shaped pests that range from 1 5 to about 3 mm long. Fleas are also wingless however these bugs have a high jump that may make them look like they are flying. Fleas will often be spotted where your pets like to go but bed bugs are most likely to be found as their name implies nesting at the seams of your mattress.
Fleas can even transmit infectious diseases. Bed bugs however have a flatter seed like shape and clock in at 1 5 to 5 mm. Like fleas bed bugs feed exclusively on blood and both are well known and hated for leaving itchy bites on your skin. Fleas are smaller than bed bugs measuring one to four milimeters in length.
It is easier to control flea infestation in the home than it is to get rid of bed. Adult bed bugs can survive up to a year between feedings. You can also see the details of how big bed bugs are compared to fleas. While fleas can live several months without a host in the pupa stage adult fleas can only live about two weeks.
Fleas and bed bugs differ in their choice of host. One flea can lay between 150 and 300 eggs every week. However if the marks are in small clusters 3 4x in a single spot this is a potential sign that these pests are lurking nearby. They have to.
Bed bugs and fleas both bite.