PSA for my followers in the Southern and Midwestern States (and those not in the know in Latin America):
(Photo by Gabriel L. Hamer from the Texas A&M University Kissing Bug Website)
These are Triatoma, or kissing bugs. The bugs themselves are not much to look at, but rather it’s the parasites that they carry that are cause for concern.
Chagas disease is transmitted by kissing bugs when they bite their sleeping victim and the parasite (in their defecation) is exposed to the wound. This disease has two stages, acute and chronic. The chronic stage may not show up until years, decades, down the line and by then can cause a long list of health problems, including sudden death.
At this point, there isn’t really a general consensus about how worried people should be about Chagas disease. I’ve seen it compared to AIDS, and I’ve also seen people say it only affects dogs(false).
About four years ago I was working in NE Kansas. Before we could go out, we were given flyers about Chagas and kissing bugs - as the location we were going was known to have them and there was a chance we could accidentally touch them. If we did? Scrub, scrub with soap and don’t touch your face (much like with a certain virus going around nowadays). If we saw any kissing bugs wandering, we were to kill them and bleach the surface they were walking on.
Fortunately, I never saw them on that trip. Two years later I saw one in my house. I’ve seen even more this year. I don’t particularly live in the deep south, and I don’t live in a rural area at all.
(Photo by Texas A&M University Kissing Bug Website - the shaded areas represent states that have reported Triatoma)
With summers warming every year, we can expect these bugs to move more and more northward. The reason I am making this post?
People have been mistaking these for stinkbugs. They have been handling them, not knowing the danger these bugs pose. Hell, even the health center I contacted didn’t even know that Chagas disease existed.
TLDR: Don’t touch these bugs, don’t let your pets touch these bugs. They carry a parasite that can cause sudden death years down the line.
For more information (please, I haven’t included nearly everything over this issue, nor am I an expert), check out Texas A&M University’s research team’s website: https://kissingbug.tamu.edu/
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