Mr. Pest Control Q&A

 

Q. What products and steps are needed to treat multiple cats in a bed bug infested home? The customer has two dogs and eight cats living indoors with them. Hours after I heated and sprayed the home, the homeowners called complaining about seeing multiple live bugs. The only variable in this home is the large number of cats. I tend to have problems with cat owners in general, especially if their cats runs the neighborhood.

-- David, OH

 

A. It shouldn’t be unexpected to see a few live bed bugs after a treatment. How many are reasonable is debatable, but the point behind multiple treatments is that bed bugs are hard to find and this situation is possible. The pets are probably not the sole reason for this. While bed bugs will feed on pets, it’s not in their nature to stay on pets like ticks and fleas. Bed bugs will return to their harborages after a blood meal whether the host is a human or a pet. In this way, you’d want to focus on pet bedding and resting areas. However, it’s possible to carry bed bugs around on pet collars, leashes, and carriers as it is in the seams of human clothing and bags. These are more things to look into.

As for the pets themselves, there’s nothing you should do beyond inspecting (and treating, if necessary) their resting areas and items for bed bugs. Pet flea and tick treatments do not provide information regarding efficacy against bed bugs, so I wouldn’t make that recommendation to a customer.

 

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