All Kissing Bugs feed on blood, and those that prefer human blood can carry a serious disease. Charles Darwin's debilitating illness was probably caused by one.
Triatoma infestans is one of the Kissing Bugs. Like the ticks these bugs can carry human diseases. T.infestans is the most important carrier of Chaga’s disease in South America.
What happens is that the bug gets infected with the parasite (Trypanosoma cruzi) when he sucks blood from an infected person, and then passes it on when he bites a new victim. The parasite is actually passed out with the bug’s faeces, and then it creeps into the wound which is usually on the lips. Soon after infection there is a chronic reaction, typically with swelling around the lips, and then the disease lays dormant for several years. The later, chronic, stage of the disease is very serious. There is often severe heart damage, and while the disease can be treated just after infection, the chronic disease remains incurable. Even heart transplants don’t seem to work because the parasite just takes advantage of the lowered immune system, reproduces like mad, and then starts doing damage all over again!
Charles Darwin ( famous for his views on evolution ) probably caught Chaga’s Disease when he was bitten by “a great black bug of the pampas” while on his famous voyage round the world in the ‘Beagle’. It is possible to get a vaccination before going to places where the disease is endemic (parts of South America), and you can also use mosquito nets. The worrying thing is that for every one adult flying down to ‘get’ you there will be five young ones crawling up! And that’s not all one has young that camouflage themselves, so that you can end up carrying them into the house with the firewood.
Kissing Bugs are members of the Assassin Bug and Wheel Bug family of insects (Reduviidae). They have been found preserved in Amber - (Assassin Bug in Colombian Amber). Most Assassin Bugs kill insects so they can be very helpful to man, often killing agricultural and garden pests, and sometimes more directly (such as the ‘Masked Hunter’ who kills bedbugs!). Wheel Bugs are among the many bugs kept as pets by some people who feed them mealworms. They look very unusual but they can give a very nasty bite, so I don’t think I’ll go any further than keeping Silverfish myself!
see also 'animal senses' and, can they control host behaviour as the horsehair worms do?
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