A Bat Bug Compared to a Bed Bug

Are you sure you have Bed Bugs and not Bat Bugs? Know before you start the extermination process, or you could end up re-infested. Bat bugs fly with bats instead of hitching a ride with humans; their preferred host is the bat, and it’s believed that bed bugs descended from bat bugs.

A bed bug being carried by a bat into a home.

Cave dwellers and bats lived near each other, and when bats abandoned the cave, the bugs made the jump to humans. The scientific name of the bat bug is Cimex Adjunctus of the order Hemiptera: Cimicidae.

If your home has bats that carry bat bugs, then you not only have to exterminate the bat bugs but must also get rid of the bats. The question is, what does a bat bug look like compared to a bed bug?

Bat bug compared to a bed bug.

A bat bug compared to a bed bug side-by-side.

The trick to identifying a bat bug is looking at the length of hairs on the upper covering of the thorax. The picture above is the joining of one half bat bug (left side) and one half bed bug (right side). You’ll notice that the length of the bat bug’s hair is longer than the width of its eye. The bed bug, however, has hairs smaller than its eye’s width.

Once you have effectively isolated the type of bug you’re dealing with, you can begin a calculated pest control solution.

Note: Bats are essential; PLEASE DO NOT kill them. Austin Bat Hospital has detailed information and diagrams on how to get rid of bats without harming them. Bats don’t like these bugs any more than we do :)