Apr 15, 2011 – Some Bugs Really Suck
QUESTION:
I have a possible assassin bug issue. Do you have any treatment recommendations? Thank you for any help you can provide.
ANSWER:
It is important to verify that you do, indeed, have assassin bugs, and also which kind are present. There are many different species of these insects in the family Reduviidae, but only a very few are blood feeders. The vast majority are beneficial predators that feed on other insects. They may bite a person if they are handled carelessly, but only in self defense, and not to feed on blood. Principally the blood feeders in the U.S. are in the genus Triatoma, and in Latin America species in this genus are referred to as Kissing Bugs, and some kinds live inside homes, feed on sleeping humans, and transmit the awful Chagas Disease. It's hard to believe that a disease that at any one moment infects 11 million humans and kills about 20,000 people each year is nearly unknown to the vast majority of people in the U.S. However, CDC estimates that as many as 300,000 people now living in the U.S. may be infected with it due to travels in Latin America. We have the vectors and we have the pathogen, and all they have to do is get together to start the problem here.
If it is assassin bugs and they are only predatory kinds then you may as well leave them alone. Trying to control the solitary flying insects would be difficult to do. There is that slight potential for being bitten, and some people may react pretty violently to the bite and any saliva injected by the bug, so it isn't necessarily inconsequential. But, keeping flying bugs from flying is tough to do. There also is a species called the Masked Hunter, which is also a predatory species, but it may establish itself inside homes if there are enough bugs to feed on, so good pest management indoors helps keep the bugs from being there too. Since these bugs may feed on bed bugs as just one part of their diet, there have been some unbelievable recommendations from anti-pesticide folks to use assassin bugs inside homes as a bio-control for bed bugs.
If it is the blood feeders they often are associated with the nests of wild animals, such as pack rats and wood rats, where they live in close association with these potential blood host animals. In the summer their populations may increase and hunger may drive the bugs to seek other hosts, bringing them to humans. They may be attracted to lights at night, drawing them to homes. Exclusion to prevent their entry is extremely important, as it is for so many other bugs, so this should be at least part of the focus of control.
If these are blood feeders, and they are living inside the home, they will hide within crevices during the daytime and feed at night. Treating the crevices and gaps within the infested rooms as you might for bed bug control, using a residual insecticide, would kill the assassin bugs. There certainly should not be very many of them, so even using pyrethrum to knock them down and out of hiding might be effective. Outdoor lights can be turned off or changed to yellow bulbs, or moved away from doorways, to reduce the attraction of the bugs to the home. Since kissing bugs often just crawl to the sleeping person, or drop from the ceiling onto the bed, the use of glue traps around the room might be helpful. The customer also might consider buying mosquito netting and sleeping within it until this problem is resolved. Beds can be moved away from the walls and pitfall traps placed under bed posts to reduce the chances of the bugs to crawl onto the bed.
Pesticides outdoors play very little role, other than to treat directly into rodent nests. This includes ground squirrels as well as wood rats, and these host animals should be eliminated from the property.
I have a possible assassin bug issue. Do you have any treatment recommendations? Thank you for any help you can provide.
ANSWER:
It is important to verify that you do, indeed, have assassin bugs, and also which kind are present. There are many different species of these insects in the family Reduviidae, but only a very few are blood feeders. The vast majority are beneficial predators that feed on other insects. They may bite a person if they are handled carelessly, but only in self defense, and not to feed on blood. Principally the blood feeders in the U.S. are in the genus Triatoma, and in Latin America species in this genus are referred to as Kissing Bugs, and some kinds live inside homes, feed on sleeping humans, and transmit the awful Chagas Disease. It's hard to believe that a disease that at any one moment infects 11 million humans and kills about 20,000 people each year is nearly unknown to the vast majority of people in the U.S. However, CDC estimates that as many as 300,000 people now living in the U.S. may be infected with it due to travels in Latin America. We have the vectors and we have the pathogen, and all they have to do is get together to start the problem here.
If it is assassin bugs and they are only predatory kinds then you may as well leave them alone. Trying to control the solitary flying insects would be difficult to do. There is that slight potential for being bitten, and some people may react pretty violently to the bite and any saliva injected by the bug, so it isn't necessarily inconsequential. But, keeping flying bugs from flying is tough to do. There also is a species called the Masked Hunter, which is also a predatory species, but it may establish itself inside homes if there are enough bugs to feed on, so good pest management indoors helps keep the bugs from being there too. Since these bugs may feed on bed bugs as just one part of their diet, there have been some unbelievable recommendations from anti-pesticide folks to use assassin bugs inside homes as a bio-control for bed bugs.
If it is the blood feeders they often are associated with the nests of wild animals, such as pack rats and wood rats, where they live in close association with these potential blood host animals. In the summer their populations may increase and hunger may drive the bugs to seek other hosts, bringing them to humans. They may be attracted to lights at night, drawing them to homes. Exclusion to prevent their entry is extremely important, as it is for so many other bugs, so this should be at least part of the focus of control.
If these are blood feeders, and they are living inside the home, they will hide within crevices during the daytime and feed at night. Treating the crevices and gaps within the infested rooms as you might for bed bug control, using a residual insecticide, would kill the assassin bugs. There certainly should not be very many of them, so even using pyrethrum to knock them down and out of hiding might be effective. Outdoor lights can be turned off or changed to yellow bulbs, or moved away from doorways, to reduce the attraction of the bugs to the home. Since kissing bugs often just crawl to the sleeping person, or drop from the ceiling onto the bed, the use of glue traps around the room might be helpful. The customer also might consider buying mosquito netting and sleeping within it until this problem is resolved. Beds can be moved away from the walls and pitfall traps placed under bed posts to reduce the chances of the bugs to crawl onto the bed.
Pesticides outdoors play very little role, other than to treat directly into rodent nests. This includes ground squirrels as well as wood rats, and these host animals should be eliminated from the property.
