Can Dogs And Cats Get Bed Bugs?

Yes, a bed bug will feed on a dog or a cat sharing an infested house. No, the pet is not where the problem lives, and treating the pet does not fix anything. Bed bugs do not ride an animal the way fleas do. They feed, then go back into the room, and the room is where every useful step happens.

The question arrives two ways. Either somebody has confirmed bed bugs and is now worried about the dog, or somebody has a cat that will not stop scratching and has started searching. Those two need opposite answers.

Will A Bed Bug Actually Bite A Dog Or Cat?

Sometimes, and more readily the longer they go without a person. The Companion Animal Parasite Council, which writes the parasite guidelines most veterinary practices work from, says bed bugs feed mainly on people and may also feed on dogs and cats when pets are present in an infested home. The EPA is blunter in its bed bugs in schools material: bed bugs do not typically seek out cats or dogs, thick fur makes it hard for them to reach skin, and a pet left alone in an infested dwelling for many weeks might eventually be fed on by starving insects.

A pet is a fallback host rather than a target, and that cuts two ways. A household with a dog does not have a different bed bug problem than a household without one, and a mark you think you see on an animal is not evidence worth acting on. On the health question, the EPA says bed bugs are not known to transmit disease, and the veterinary guidance names none they pass to a dog or a cat either.

Why This Is Nothing Like Fleas

Fleas are a problem on the animal that spills into the house. Bed bugs are a problem in the house that occasionally touches the animal. Everything practical follows from that one difference.

If the itching is the whole reason you are reading this, start with the veterinarian. Our post on fleas in a house with no pet covers the flea side, and what bite patterns can and cannot tell you covers the human side of the same confusion.

Did The Dog Bring Them In?

Almost certainly not. The Companion Animal Parasite Council says transport on a pet or in pet bedding is theoretically possible, but calls pets an unlikely route for introducing bed bugs, and names the common routes instead: luggage, clothing, used furniture and similar objects moved out of an infested place. The guideline goes further and states that pets are not involved in bed bug infestations and do not serve as a source of them in the home.

What travels is the object, not the animal. A soft carrier that spent a weekend on a hotel floor is luggage. A secondhand crate pad is used furniture. Those get handled the same way anything else does, which we walk through in checking used furniture before it comes inside and in the five minute hotel room check.

The Flea Medicine Will Not Touch This

This is the part worth being firm about, because it is where weeks get spent for nothing. Flea control products used on pets are not labeled for bed bugs, and because bed bugs feed primarily on people, the Companion Animal Parasite Council says treating pets would not be expected to be an effective form of control. The ASPCA reaches the same conclusion from the other side: since the insects do not live on the host, treating a pet for them is unnecessary.

There is real research in this corner, which is probably why the idea persists. Parasites and Vectors published a trial of oral afoxolaner against bed bugs feeding on dogs, and a 2022 paper in Parasite tested a topical combination product on cats. Neither makes a pet a treatment plan, because the insects live in the bed frame and the baseboard. The label also decides what any product may legally be used for, which we cover in what pet safe pest control actually means.

A sensible order, if a pet is in the house and bed bugs are on the table:

• Take the scratching to a veterinarian and let them rule out fleas, lice and mites first.
• Search the room where people sleep before the room where the pet sleeps, since that is the harborage the insects choose.
• Keep anything you catch. One insect in a sealed bag settles more than a week of guessing.
• Leave the furniture where it is. Dragging a mattress or a dog bed to another room is how one room becomes three.
• Do not use a flea or tick product anywhere its label does not name bed bugs.

The Dog Bed, The Crate And The Cat Tree

Soft pet bedding is the one pet item the published guidance speaks to directly. The Companion Animal Parasite Council calls for laundering pet bedding in hot water, above 120 degrees Fahrenheit, with high heat in the dryer, and says bedding that is torn or holed so it cannot be cleaned thoroughly should be discarded. The CDC's pet supply cleaning guidance runs along the same lines for routine hygiene: pet beds and blankets go through the washer and the dryer, with the dryer on its highest heat setting for 30 minutes, while hard items get soap and water.

The dryer is doing the work in all of this. The EPA notes that washing alone generally will not kill bed bugs, and puts bedding and clothing in the dryer at high temperature for 30 minutes instead. Our guide to getting a house ready for heat treatment covers the laundry sequence and what else leaves the house, pets and fish tanks included.

Nothing in the extension or federal guidance addresses a plastic crate or a carpeted cat tree, so we will not invent a rule for them. A crate is a hard surface with seams and a tray. A cat tree is upholstered furniture with joints and fabric edges standing where an animal sleeps every night. Both belong on the inspection list rather than in the laundry.

Read The Room, Not The Animal

Bed bugs are built to disappear into a structure. Ohio State University Extension's bed bug fact sheet notes that their flat bodies let them squeeze into cracks and crevices, and that while they turn up most often in high turnover buildings like hotels, dormitories and shelters, they can appear in virtually any building, single family homes included. In North Canton, Canton and Akron that means housing type settles nothing.

So the search runs where the people sleep, along the piping and seams of the mattress, the joints of the frame and the headboard, then outward. Our guide to checking for bed bugs covers the evidence, and our North Canton service page covers what we handle locally.

When it is confirmed, our ThermaLock heat treatment takes the space to a lethal temperature and holds it there, which kills every life stage including the eggs, typically in a single day and with no chemical residue. Nothing is applied to the dog, and nothing is applied to the cat, because neither one is part of the infestation. How that works is on our bed bug heat treatment page.

If you are at the stage of wondering whether the pet is the explanation, an inspection answers it faster than anything you can do yourself. The inspection fee is waived when you go with us for treatment. Start on our bed bug treatment page, schedule an inspection, or call 330-494-6199 and tell us what you have been seeing, on the animal and in the room.