- Author: Karey Windbiel-Rojas
Conenose or ‘kissing bugs' (Triatoma spp.) are in the Reduviidae family, a group of insects known for a sturdy body and large proboscis. Most reduviids are beneficial as insect predators, and include various species of assassin bugs. Conenose bugs are easily confused with other assassin bugs as well as bugs with similar body shapes from other insect families.
Kissing bugs are not new insects to California or the United States, but there has been a good deal of press about them in recent years because conenose bugs can vector a protozoan, Trypanosoma cruzi, that causes Chagas disease in humans. While conenose bugs do...
- Author: Karey Windbiel-Rojas
- Author: Missy Gable
Conenose or ‘kissing bugs' (Triatoma spp.) have received a good deal of press from CBS Sacramento and other media outlets in recent weeks. Although not a new insect to California or the U.S., we thought readers might benefit from some guidance and information on these bugs in case one should encounter these seldom seen insects.
Conenose bugs can vector a protozoan, Trypanosoma cruzi, that causes Chagas disease in humans. While conenose bugs do bite humans, the protozoan is transmitted via the bug's feces, rather than through bites.
Conenose bugs are in the...
