Flea Vs Tick: What’s the Difference?

The warm afternoon sun is starting to conjure ideations of wonderful spring days. But as we start spending time outdoors during the warmer months, we’re likely to realize the mild winter gave us a doozy of a pest problem to deal with. Pests like fleas and ticks are likely to be huge issues this year. In this flea vs tick guide, we’ll discuss the differences so you’ll know how to identify which bit you and what you should do next during flea and tick season.

Fleas and Ticks: What Do They Look Like?

To the naked eye, fleas and ticks can seem pretty similar. Both of these small insects feed on blood, biting and latching onto a host in order to get their meals. But there are actually quite a few differences between fleas and ticks, and it’s important to know what they are.

Ticks

Ticks are small, blood-sucking arthropods. They’re technically not insects as they belong to the arachnid family. Their bodies contain two segments (head and body) and they have eight legs. They usually measure between 3 and 5 mm from end-to-end, but this depends on several factors, including the tick type, age, gender, and whether or not they’ve eaten (and how much).

When it comes to color, ticks can vary widely. They’re commonly orange, brown, gray, white, black, or yellowish in color. If they’ve eaten to their fill, their bodies generally darken in color. They’re often mistaken for other pests (like chiggers), but they are distinctly different.

The following are some of the most common types of ticks:

• Black-legged or deer ticks
• Lone Star tick (known for the star-like design on its back)
• American Dog tick
• Brown Dog tick
• Rocky Mountain Wood tick

Fleas

Fleas are tiny, wingless insects with six legs. They usually measure between 1/16 and 1/8-inch long, making them about the size of a pin head. This makes them very hard to spot with the naked eye. Like ticks, fleas bite humans and pets, latch on, and drink the blood of their hosts.

While fleas have six legs, their rear legs are longer and much more springy than their front. These legs allow these insects to jump up to 7 inches high and 13 inches horizontally for fast travel.

Fleas are generally darker in color, such as brown, reddish brown, or black, with oval-shaped bodies and hard shells. These shells make them hard to kill, forcing the user to snap their bodies with their fingernails.

Bottom Line:

If it hops or jumps, has six legs, and looks super tiny, it’s probably a flea. If it crawls, and has eight legs and two distinct body sections, it’s a tick.

Where Fleas and Ticks Live

Both fleas and ticks are outdoor pests that become indoor problems. Here’s where they’re most likely to be found outside and in.

Where Ticks Live

Ticks love wooded areas, tall grass, and leaf litter. They often lie in wait in these areas, searching for an opportunity to latch onto the pant leg, sock, shoe, or anything else belonging to a suitable host. Once they do, they’ll latch on, feed, release, and leave to lay eggs or find a mate.

They’ll have multiple hosts in a lifetime. Once they feed, their goal is to make it back outside, and if they don’t do so in time, ticks will look for another host to feed on again. They’re not interested in starting an entire civilization on the host like fleas are.

Where Fleas Live

Fleas prefer to live in moist, cool, and shady places. This may include thick vegetation, tall grass in shady spots, and damp leaf litter. They’ll wait in these areas for a suitable host to brush past so they can leap onto them. They’re most likely to affect dogs and cats.

Once they latch on, adult fleas are happy to live on one host for the rest of their lifecycle. They’ll feed, mate, and lay eggs (of which the female flea can lay up to 50 per day). This typically occurs in a pet’s fur, where fleas feed on the pet’s blood, lay flea eggs, and cause irritating bites.

This is how fleas typically enter a home and why they’re most often seen as an indoor infestation. Once the family pet starts scratching and the owner parts the fur to see what’s going on, they’ll notice dark specks on the skin. These specks are either the fleas themselves or flea dirt (poop).

Note: It’s important to realize that while fleas can bite humans, they will not live on them. They need the dense fur of an animal to start their infestations.

Bottom Line:

It’s not necessarily possible to tell a flea from a tick based on where you might’ve gotten it. However, if there are lots of them living out a lifecycle on your pet, it’s fleas.

Flea vs Tick Bites

The way that fleas and ticks bite and feed varies a bit, despite both feeding on blood.

Flea Bite

When a flea latches onto a host, it holds on with the strong claws on the ends of its legs. It then has needle-like mouth parts (proboscis) that it’s able to piece into the host’s skin, secreting saliva into the wound and sucking blood.

Flea bites can result in irritated skin that itches intensely. This is caused by the flea’s saliva, as the body doesn’t recognize it as it hits the bloodstream and treats it like an allergic reaction. 

It’s usually not until their pet scratches at these irritating bites that owners find fleas on their pet. At that point, it’s usually already a full-blown infestation in the pet’s fur, as these bugs prefer to spend their whole lives on one host.

Tick Bites

When a tick bites a host, it does so by jabbing its jaw-like mouthparts (the chelicerae) into the skin and digging a hole. It then plunges its straw-like hypostome into the wound, pushing it further and further into the wound. This hypostome has barbs that hold it into the wound, allowing an adult tick to hang on for up to two weeks.

During this time, the tick will inject its saliva into the wound while also drinking the blood. This is how infected ticks transmit disease to the host, as the saliva will enter the host’s bloodstream and cause a host of common symptoms.

Bite Symptoms

Bottom Line:

If you notice a bite and discomfort or symptoms, don’t worry about whether it was a flea or a tick. Just go see a doctor as soon as possible.

Flea and Tick Diseases

Both fleas and ticks are dangerous little critters. They can transmit diseases that can be devastating for the victim, including humans, pets, and other animals.

Flea Borne diseases

Generally speaking, fleas carry less serious diseases than ticks. However, they can transmit diseases with some serious symptoms and dangers. They include plague, flea-borne typhus, Cat scratch disease, and flea-borne parasites like tapeworms. 

In addition to the fact that they can carry diseases, flea bites can cause allergic reactions that itch severely. Scratching too much can cause an infection.

Tick-Borne Diseases

Ticks are also known to transmit diseases, and some can be very dangerous or life-threatening. These tick-borne diseases include Lyme disease, Anaplasmosis, Ehrlichiosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Babesiosis, Tularemia, and Powassan virus. Many of these diseases are transmitted solely by infected ticks and can cause serious health problems. Common symptoms of tick bites include:

• Flu-like symptoms
• Joint pain
• Severe headache
• And much more

For a tick bite to transmit disease like Lyme disease or Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, many experts say it takes 36 to 48 hours of feeding. While that might seem like a long time to not notice a parasite attached to your skin, it’s usually the nymphs or baby ticks that spread diseases. These ticks are very small and hard to see, allowing them to hang on for as long as necessary.

Bottom Line:

If you’re experiencing symptoms, you need to see a doctor. They’ll run blood tests to determine what the cause of the symptoms is, which may help determine which bug it came from.

Flea and Tick Treatments

How To Prevent Flea and Tick Problems

The EPA has some handy suggestions about controlling fleas and ticks around a home. To summarize:

• Vacuum every day to remove eggs, larvae, and adult fleas and ticks. Be sure to vacuum the following areas: carpets, cushioned furniture, cracks and crevices on floors, along baseboards, and the basement.
• Steam clean carpets: the hot steam and soap can kill fleas and ticks in all stages of the life cycle. Check out our best bed bug steamers article here, as they’ll work for fleas too.
• Wash all pet bedding and family bedding on which pets lie every two weeks. Be sure to use hot, soapy water.
• If the infestation is severe, throw out the old pet blankets and bedding and start fresh with new bedding.
• Use a comb to capture and kill adult fleas. Hair can pass through the comb’s teeth, but not the fleas, ticks, feces, or dried pet’s blood. Pay especially close attention around the neck and tail. Drop fleas in hot soapy water to kill them.
• Consider allowing your pets to stay indoors as much as possible, which reduces their chance of being bitten by ticks and fleas.

We’ll add some helpful suggestions to avoid ticks and fleas in the home:

• If fleas and ticks are a constant issue, call a pest control company to treat the lawn. A pest control tech will apply pesticides that prevent these bugs from infesting the backyard, hopefully keeping populations down.
• Perform quick flea and tick check inspections on pets at least once a day.
• Mow the lawn regularly. Keeping grass short is a great way to control fleas and ticks and reduce areas where these pests can thrive.
• When outside, tuck pants into socks, shirts into pants, and wear long sleeves. Once you come inside, place the clothes in the dryer on high heat for six minutes to kill any ticks or fleas on the fabric.

FAQs

Which is worse fleas or ticks?

Ticks. It’s generally accepted that ticks are worse than fleas because of the seriousness of the diseases they carry. However, fleas are also dangerous and can repopulate quickly, so it’s important to control fleas as quickly as possible.

How do you tell if it is a flea?

If they’re excellent jumpers, they’re probably fleas. Fleas are tiny, oval-shaped bugs that infest pets and other animals. They can bite humans as well.

Can fleas live on humans?

No, fleas can’t live on humans. They can bite humans and drink blood, but they prefer the dense fur of a pet or animal to continue their lifecycle.

Do fleas latch on like ticks?

Yes, fleas latch onto their hosts, but they do so differently than ticks. Fleas have claws at the ends of their legs, and this is how they latch onto the skin. Ticks have barbed mouthparts that allow them to dig in and embed themselves in the skin.

Can fleas and ticks live in your bed?

Yes. Fleas and ticks can infest a bed, especially if there are pets present and bringing them into the home. However, they still need a host to feed on, so they’re likely biting you or your pets at night. Ticks eat, detach, and lay eggs wherever they fall. If they fall off a bed, they’ll lay eggs there, and their larvae (once hatched) will begin feeding on the hosts, as well.

However, do understand that it’s far more likely that the infestation is actually bed bugs, and you should investigate as soon as possible.

Do ticks wash off in the shower?

Showering is an excellent way to remove ticks that have not yet attached themselves to a host. However, once they bite, showering will not likely remove them.

Can ticks survive a washer and dryer?

No, but in most cases, it makes sense to only use the dryer, which can kill ticks in six minutes. Simply place the clothes in the dryer, set the dryer to high heat, and press start to kill ticks on clothing.