Do I Have Fleas or Bedbugs In My House?

If you have a pest problem in your house, the first thing you need to know is the exact pest you're dealing with. If you don't know which pest has infested your property, you might not use the right treatment. Meanwhile, the infestation grows out of control.

It can be hard to identify which pest is causing a problem when there are two similar culprits. This is definitely the case with fleas and bed bugs.

Do I Have Fleas or Bed Bugs in My House?

Both fleas and bed bugs feed on the blood of an animal or human host. Their tiny size means they can be hard to spot and they'll often enter your home in similar ways. Fleas and bed bugs get in on:

Clothing

Luggage/gym bags/handbags

Mattresses

Pets

Second-hand items, especially furniture.

Telling these pests apart can be a tricky task, however, there are some key differences.

Fleas or Bed Bugs: How are they Different?

They look different

While both pests are reddish-brown in colour, they have different shaped bodies. Bed bugs have a flat, oval shape, while fleas have long, narrow bodies.

Their preferred hosts are different

One way to determine whether you are dealing with fleas or bed bugs is by looking at their preferred host. Bed bugs like to feed on human blood, so you'll always find them where there are a lot of people. This is one of the main reasons why you'll find bed bugs in populated places like London. Fleas, on the other hand, prefer to feed on animals but may feed on human hosts if there's no other option.

It's worth mentioning that you probably won't be able to work out if you've got fleas or bed bugs in your house from looking at bites alone. Every human or animal's skin will react differently to bites and the bites won't appear the same.

Fleas and bed bugs have different methods of travel

This is one of the biggest differences between fleas and bed bugs. Bed bugs crawl and are unable to fly or jump. Fleas can jump from an infested item to a person or animal, or from one host to another.

Fleas or Bed bugs? I'm Still Not Sure

The only way to tell what kind of pest issue you're having in your home is to call in professional pest control. Our expert technicians are skilled in identifying pests, how they've found their way into your home, and determining the most effective treatment to eradicate them.

If there's a flea issue in your home, we'll usually treat the affected area with insecticide and something called an Insect Growth Regulator which destroys flea eggs and pupae. This is really important if you want to fully eradicate an infestation.

For bed bugs, heat treatment is very effective. We might also use insecticide, depending on the extent of the problem.

To eradicate pests from your house, the first step is identifying them. That's where the experts come in.