How do you get rid of kissing bugs?

What to do if you find a kissing bug in your house?

If you find a kissing bug, the CDC recommends you do not touch or squash it. To help understand the problem and how many carry the disease, the CDC is asking for help. They suggest you place a container on top of the kissing bug for 24 hours, and then seal the bug inside the container.

What is the best way to get rid of kissing bugs?

Sealing cracks and gaps around windows, walls, roofs, and doors. Removing wood, brush, and rock piles near your house. Using screens on doors and windows and repairing any holes or tears. If possible, making sure yard lights are not close to your house (lights can attract the bugs)

What attracts the kissing bug?

Adults fly well and are attracted to lights after dark. In suburban and rural Arizona, kissing bugs are often attracted to porch lights. At dawn, they may seek a way to avoid sunlight and heat, and may enter a residence through a doorway gap, or cracks around window screens.

What happens if a kissing bug lands on you?

Because they tend to bite people's faces, triatomine bugs are also known as “kissing bugs”. After they bite and ingest blood, they defecate (poop) on the person. The person can become infected if T. cruzi parasites in the bug feces enter the body through mucous membranes or breaks in the skin.

How to Get Rid of Kissing Bugs (4 Easy Steps)

Do kissing bugs live in beds?

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. In areas where mice or other rodents live.

Are kissing bugs harmful to humans?

The Bottom Line. Kissing bugs can transmit a parasite that leads to a potentially serious illness called Chagas disease. Most cases of Chagas disease occur in Latin America. Although infection directly from exposure to the kissing bug is rare in the US, it is still important to take steps to prevent kissing bug bites.

Do kissing bugs bite at night?

They are hosts to the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, which can cause Chagas disease in humans. Kissing bugs are bloodsuckers of warm-blooded creatures that feed at night. Klotz J.H.

What eats the kissing bug?

Kissing bugs are bloodsuckers and seek out mammals including dogs. Dogs eat bugs and will snatch up kissing bugs.

Where do kissing bugs hide during the day?

They are nocturnal, so they will hide in dark, dry crevices during the day. Any cracks in furniture, walls, or floors are a potential home for kissing bugs, as well as under beds or near pet beds.

Do kissing bugs carry disease?

The cause of Chagas disease is the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, which is spread from an insect known as the triatomine bug, or "kissing bug." These insects can become infected by this parasite when they swallow blood from an animal that is infected with the parasite.

Do kissing bugs lay eggs?

Kissing bugs usually feed on humans during nighttime hours, most often in the bedroom. They are usually solitary adults but, on occasion gravid females may enter the home and lay eggs giving rise to nymphs.

Do kissing bugs fly or jump?

What are kissing bugs? Kissing bugs are a flying, blood-feeding species of insect that are part of the Triatominae subfamily in the Reduviidae family. They are also called Assassin Bugs and they feed on warm blooded animals, including humans.

Where kissing bugs are located?

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.

How do you prevent kissing bugs?

Are kissing bugs attracted to light?

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.

Are kissing bug bites itchy?

Kissing bugs can cause patches of bites, often around the mouth. The bites are usually painless, but they may swell and look like hives. Itching from the bites may last a week.

How do you identify a kissing bug?

Kissing bugs have some parts that make them easier to recognize. They have a 'cone-shaped' head, thin antennae, and thin legs. All of the kinds of kissing bugs found in the United States are mainly black or very dark brown, with red, orange or yellow 'stripes' around the edge of their bodies.

Can kissing bugs bite?

Kissing bugs are mostly active during the night. They are called kissing bugs because people used to think that they mostly bite around the mouth or eyes — like a kiss! Kissing bugs do not just bite on the face; they can bite anywhere on the body that they can access.

Do kissing bugs bite at night?

They are hosts to the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, which can cause Chagas disease in humans. Kissing bugs are bloodsuckers of warm-blooded creatures that feed at night. Klotz J.H.

Do love bugs bite humans?

Lovebugs are in the air, but fortunately, they won't be here long. Dubbed "lovebugs" because of their in-flight mating, the pests pose no threat to the environment or people. They do not bite or sting.

Can you touch a kissing bug?

Do not touch a kissing bug with your bare hands! The T. cruzi parasite may be in the feces of kissing bugs, and their bodies may have the parasite on them.

What eats kissing bugs?

Kissing bugs are bloodsuckers and seek out mammals including dogs. Dogs eat bugs and will snatch up kissing bugs.

Do kissing bugs fly or jump?

What are kissing bugs? Kissing bugs are a flying, blood-feeding species of insect that are part of the Triatominae subfamily in the Reduviidae family. They are also called Assassin Bugs and they feed on warm blooded animals, including humans.

Where kissing bugs are located?

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.