Reports of deadly kissing bugs in the South have Wichitans seeing things

Since posts were shared on Facebook recently about a potentially deadly insect called the kissing bug in the southern United States, Kansas residents have been seeing suspicious creatures around their houses.

So far, the bugs have turned out to be nothing but kissing cousins to the real thing. But if you travel to south Texas, it might be another story.

“I fully expect as people talk about it more we may get false-alarm calls from people who get a box elder-bug invasion in the winter,” said Jim Mason, director of the Great Plains Nature Center in Wichita. Box elder bugs may be similarly colored, but they don’t hurt anybody, as a kissing bug could.

Kissing bugs, officially known as triatomine bugs, are from Latin America and have been making their way north into the United States. The bugs can carry the parasite that causes Chagas disease, which can cause serious heart and stomach illnesses, including irregular heartbeats that can cause sudden death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A map on the CDC’s website shows that the insects have been found in Kansas. But the Kansas Department of Health and Environment has had only one report of Chagas disease in Kansas, and that was in 2014, said Cassie Sparks, public information officer for the public health agency. The case showed up during testing at a blood bank in a person who had no symptoms and was bitten by a kissing bug years earlier, presumably during travel to the southern United States, Sparks said.

So far, Mason has been presented with a case of mistaken identity of a kissing bug in Wichita in the form of an assassin bug (nothing to play with either, but not deadly). A couple of leaf-footed bugs have been brought in to the Extension Center – one dead, one alive – as possible kissing bugs, said extension agent Rebecca McMahon. While also colorfully named, leaf-footed bugs bite only pine or catalpa trees.

McMahon said she’s heard no talk of the kissing bugs in her circles. But a few people have called in or brought bugs to the Extension Center.

“They’re probably just starting to go dormant,” McMahon said of the leaf-footed and similar bugs that have been seen recently. “As it was getting colder, they’re finding a place to hide out and go dormant.”

Two to five of the leaf-footed bugs are brought in to the Extension Center in any given year, she said. “They’re kind of crazy-looking bugs.” Their inch-long bodies are black with brown and white stripes.

The kissing bugs, on the other hand, are similarly sized and mainly black or dark brown with orange, red or yellow stripes around the edges, according to a Texas A&M University Web page about them. They have cone-shaped heads and are also known as cone-nose bugs or chinches. They feed on blood during the night and prefer to bite people around the mouth (hence the name kissing bugs) or eyes, according to a pamphlet put out by Texas A&M. The university has a specific e-mail address and phone number for kissing-bug reports.

People who are bitten by kissing bugs may not ever show symptoms. Within a few weeks or months of being bitten, some have mild symptoms including fever and body aches, swelling of the eyelid and swelling at the bite mark, the CDC said. Most people have no symptoms beyond these, and many never get sick, the agency said. But later illnesses can include irregular heartbeats, an enlarged heart that doesn’t pump blood well, problems with digestion and bowel movements and an increased chance of having a stroke. A blood test can show whether a person has Chagas disease, according to the CDC.

The bugs have mainly been a threat in the rural areas of Mexico, Central America and South America, the CDC said. If you think you see a kissing bug, you shouldn’t touch it, according to Texas A&M, because its body could be contaminated. Use a glove or small plastic bag to catch it and put it in a sealed plastic bag or other small container. Wash any surfaces it came into contact with using a bleach solution, the university website says.

The bugs are mainly active at dusk or at night, Texas A&M said. They can bite animals in addition to people.

Mason said he wouldn’t be too worried about being harmed by one even if you were to come into contact with it. But it should still be shown respect, he said.

“There is a very remote possibility this could happen to someone in Kansas, but it is a very remote possibility, because we’re on the very edge of the range and because it’s not guaranteed that a person is going to get infected if they are bitten by one of these things,” he said.

“I learned a long time ago you never say never,” he continued. “With climate change, if we keep having milder and milder winters, that allows them to expand their range to the north. The risk goes up.”

This story was originally published December 6, 2015 at 7:54 PM with the headline "Reports of deadly kissing bugs in the South have Wichitans seeing things."