Can Pets Carry Bedbugs in Brent?

When bedbugs turn up, people often look at the pets first. It is an understandable guess, because fleas and ticks do arrive on animals. Bedbugs behave differently, and knowing how saves a lot of unnecessary worry and a wasted vet bill.

Why Pets Are Not a Usual Carrier

A bedbug does not live on its host. It feeds, then leaves and hides in a crack or seam nearby. Fur and constant movement make an animal a poor place to stay, so bedbugs do not ride around on dogs and cats the way fleas do.

It is possible for a bug to be carried a short way in a thick coat or a collar, but it is not the usual route. Bedbugs mostly arrive in luggage, bags, second-hand furniture and the belongings of visitors. Our guide on how bedbugs find you explains why they gather near people rather than animals.

Do Pets Get Bitten?

They can be. Bedbugs prefer people, but a pet that sleeps on or near an affected bed may be bitten, especially on thin-haired areas like the belly. Bites on animals are hard to spot and easily confused with fleas, mites or allergies. If your pet is scratching or has sore skin, ask your vet, and do not use pest products on the animal unless the vet tells you to.

Pet Beds, Baskets and Blankets

Where a pet sleeps matters more than the pet itself. A basket or cushion in the bedroom, or a blanket the dog shares with someone on the sofa, is a resting place close to a person, and bedbugs can hide in its seams just as they do in a mattress.

• Check the seams, zips and underside of pet beds in any affected room.
• Wash removable covers and blankets on a hot wash, carried to the machine in a bag.
• Leave the pet bed where it is until we have seen it; do not move it to another room.
• Tell us about any pet bed, cage or hutch in the rooms to be treated.

Dark spotting in a pet bed can be flea dirt rather than bedbug droppings. Our guide on blood spots on sheets explains a simple way to tell them apart.

Pets on the Treatment Day

For heat treatment, every pet has to be out of the rooms being treated for the whole day, including cats, small animals in cages, birds and reptiles. Tell us about any fish tank in a treated room when you ring, because it needs to be planned around. Someone should arrange where the animals will spend the day before the date is fixed.

For chemical treatment, pets are kept out of the room during the visit and until the treated surfaces are dry. We tell you on the day when people and pets can go back in, and it is important to follow those instructions. Pet bowls, food and toys should be out of the room before we start.

Planning Around a Busy Household

In a home where several people share rooms, pets are one more thing to organise. Give one person the job of the animals on the day, so nobody assumes someone else has done it. The Brent page covers how the rest of the household prepares, and treatments start from £220, priced on the phone by the number of rooms.

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