Kissing bugs are found in warm southern states of the U.S. and in Mexico, Central America, and South America. Kissing bugs can hide in cracks and holes in beds, floors, walls, and furniture. They are most likely to be found: Near places where a pet, such as a dog or cat, spends time.
The Kissing Bug- cute name, bad bite. It has a cute nickname and sounds like a harmless little insect- but the so-called “kissing bug†can spread a disease to both you and your dog which could ultimately be fatal.
The bugs have brown or black wings, sometimes with a ring of red, orange, or yellow stripes on the edge. They're usually ½- to 1-inch-long, about the size of a penny. They're also called cone-nosed bugs, bloodsuckers, cinches, and triatomine bugs. Like mosquitoes and ticks, kissing bugs need blood to live.
Kissing bugs are nocturnal, meaning that they hide during the day and are most active at night. Kissing bugs will normally hide during the day and come out at night, biting and feeding on a person's blood while they sleep.
Kissing bug life cycleThey 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.
How Did I Get Kissing Bugs? Bright porch and doorway lighting often lures kissing bugs inside homes. These insects feed on pets, so outdoor cats or dogs can also bring bugs inside.
Bite MarksKissing bugs are so named because they like to bite around the mouth or eyes. You'll often see 2-15 bite marks in one area and maybe redness and swelling. It might be hard to tell them apart from other bug bites, minor skin irritations, or infections.
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 have been spotted a far north as Delaware, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Triatomines follow the movement of air currents impregnated with host odors to locate the host. Feeding by bugs in human domiciles usually takes place at night, with bugs hiding during the day in cracks and crevices away from the feeding areas. Much less is known about feeding times for sylvatic species.
Triatomine bugs are a type of reduviid bug that can carry Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasite that causes Chagas disease.
Treatment. To kill the parasite, Chagas disease can be treated with benznidazole and also nifurtimox. Both medicines are nearly 100% effective in curing the disease if given soon after infection at the onset of the acute phase, including the cases of congenital transmission.
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.
Reportedly, the insect is mainly found inside the habitations and during nighttime. Through those connections was possible to collect a few specimen in Quezon City, all identified as Triatoma rubrofasciata.
Kissing bugs can fly, but they can also crawl and get inside that way. Homeowners can get rid of kissing bugs using liquid residual pesticides, baits or dusts.
Months, flies, mosquitoes, and kissing bugs are all attracted to bright lights at night. If you've noticed a significant number of insects around your outdoor lights, consider installing yellow light bulbs that are specifically colored to avoid attracting insects.
