For many people, their pet is their life. If you have a furry best friend or a few furry best friends that you live with, part of your job is making sure they stay safe. One way to do this is by protecting them from dangerous parasitic pests like fleas and ticks. As you probably already know, blood-feeding parasites are harmful to pets. One blood-feeding pest that lives in Tampa and regularly invades homes is bed bugs. The question is, are these insects as dangerous as their parasite cousins, fleas and ticks? To help you understand your pets' risk of being attacked by bed bugs, here are some things to consider today.
Do Bed Bugs Bite Pets?
Bed bugs get a blood meal by waiting for their prey to go to sleep and then crawling into bed with them. These pests prefer to feed on humans because navigating fur is difficult for them. They will, however, make the effort and steal blood from animals like dogs, cats, and rodents if they are having trouble finding humans to bite.
Are Bed Bugs Dangerous?
Almost all blood-feeding, parasitic pests are harmful to humans and animals. The three most common blood-feeding parasites in our area are fleas, ticks, and mosquitoes, all of which are known for spreading a range of dangerous diseases. Bed bugs, however, are the exception. These small sleep-wrecking bugs do not spread any forms of disease to humans or animals in the United States. The only disease they have been recorded to carry and spread is Chagas disease and the only cases of this happening occurred south of our border. With all of this in mind, large infestations of bed bugs are dangerous in other ways. If these are feeding on you at night, you may develop anemia or insomnia. Both of these conditions, however, will go away after you remove bed bugs from your home.
Signs Of A Bed Bug Infestation
When bed bugs invade living areas, they do their best to stay out of sight. Typically, the only time these pests emerge from hiding to feed is at night after people have gone to sleep. Keeping this in mind, identify a bed bug infestation by looking for blood stains and fecal droppings on bed linens and around bedding areas. In addition to this, check cracks, gaps, and other hard-to-reach areas around your home for shed bed bug skins, eggs, and more excrement. Finally, keep an eye on your skin. If bed bugs are biting you at night, you might start to notice red marks on your skin running in a straight line or zig-zag pattern.
How Bed Bugs Get Into Homes
Bed bugs will not crawl into homes through exterior entry points. They will also not invade by riding in on animals as fleas and ticks do. The main way bed bugs get around is by hitchhiking on things people carry. You might bring these pests into your home inside a pile of clothing, on a backpack, on a used couch, or on pretty much anything else.
The Best Way To Deal With A Bed Bug Infestation
If you suspect your home has bed bugs, please do not hesitate to involve our team at EchoTech Pest Control Services. We will thoroughly check your home for these pests and walk you through our home pest control treatment measures in order to find one that best fits your individual needs.
Contact our team today to get the process started on removing bed bugs from your Tampa home or to have any of your questions answered about area pests.