Only adult kissing bugs have wings and can fly. All kissing bugs feed on blood throughout their life. Kissing bugs can feed on people, dogs, and wild animals. They feed many times over their lives.
Step 2: Do Not Squish It
Chagas disease spreads through the kissing bug's feces, which may have contaminated its body. Handling the bug can potentially soil your hands, and if the bug is infected and you touch your mouth, eyes, or an open wound, you could contract the illness.
If you think you have found a kissing bug, don't fret, you can contact your local pest professional for identification. You can help to prevent kissing bugs from entering your home by following these tips from our experts: Seal cracks and crevices around windows, walls, doors, the roof, and attic.
There are several insects that are commonly mistaken for “kissing bugs”that do occur in and around homes statewide, including western conifer-seed bug and masked hunter.
Kissing bugs can carry a parasite that causes Chagas disease, but this is not common in Canada or the United States. Itching from the bites can be so bad that some people will scratch enough to cause breaks in the skin that get infected easily. The bites can also cause a serious allergic reaction in some people.
Kissing bugs can be attracted by light. Consider turning off lights near homes and kennels at night. Kissing bugs may live with rodents. Discourage kissing bugs and rodents by removing yard debris and keeping vegetation low.
If untreated, infection is lifelong. Acute Chagas disease occurs immediately after infection, and can last up to a few weeks or months. During the acute phase, parasites may be found in the circulating blood. This phase of infection is usually mild or asymptomatic.
Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona are the states with the most different species and most findings of kissing bugs. Scientists have found that about 50% of kissing bugs are infected with the Chagas parasite. Kissing bugs are a 'vector' because they can carry a parasite that can make people and animal sick.
They're found in Central and South America and Mexico, but they're heading north. Most of the world's kissing bugs are in Central and South America and Mexico. They've also been found in the United States in the lower 28 states, with higher concentrations in Texas, Arizona and New Mexico.
Kissing bugs feed on humans as well as wild and domestic animals and pets. They can live between one to two years from when they hatch out of the egg, through all five of the immature nymph stages, until they become adults and eventually die. Kissing bugs take many blood meals from various hosts throughout their lives.
More than 5 million people worldwide have Chagas disease. In the United States, there are estimated to be at least 300,000 cases of chronic Chagas disease among people originally from countries of Latin America where Chagas disease is endemic.
If untreated, infection is lifelong and can be life threatening. The impact of Chagas disease is not limited to only rural areas of Latin America in which vectorborne transmission (diseases transmitted by insects) occurs.
Indeed, wheel bugs and a few other true bugs continue to be misidentified on social media as kissing bugs. Two of the most common faux-kissers appearing on social media are boxelder bugs (Boisea trivittata) and western conifer seed bugs (Leptoglossus occidentalis).
But the triatomine, or so-called "kissing bug," is all too real and found regularly in Latin America, but also has been found in several areas of the United States, as far north as Illinois and Delaware. And while it often targets faces, the insect will settle for any patch of exposed skin.
You can also distinguish a wheel bug from a kissing bug by its size and color. Wheel bugs are 1-1.25 inches long, and they are dull greyish-brown in color. Eastern conenose kissing bugs are 0.6-0.9 inches long, mostly black in color, with lateral orange-red stripes on their abdomen.
Kissing bugs are bloodsucking insects that can transmit the dangerous and potentially lethal Chagas disease and also cause allergic reactions. They are most commonly encountered in the southwest desert (Tucson, AZ area) during the months of May through July.
Their bites are gentle and painless, and usually occur while the victim is asleep. They are generally unable to bite through clothing.
Triatomine bugs are a type of reduviid bug that can carry Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasite that causes Chagas disease.
Kissing bugs carry the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi in their digestive tract. Infection with Trypanosoma cruzi causes Chagas disease in dogs and other mammals. Dogs can become infected either by ingesting the kissing bug or by being bitten by the kissing bug.
To kill the parasite, Chagas disease can be treated with benznidazole or nifurtimox. Both medicines are fully effective in curing the disease if given soon after infection at the onset of the acute phase, including the cases of congenital transmission.
Symptoms may include swelling at the infection site, fever, fatigue, body aches, rash and nausea.
Symptoms of Chagas disease in the acute phase (the first few weeks or months) are: Mild, flu-like symptoms, such as fever, fatigue, body aches, and headaches. Rash. Loss of appetite.