GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. —
A blood-sucking insect known as the “kissing bug” made its way to Delaware. This month the CDC reported the insect bit a girl’s face there, the first confirmed identification of the bug in the state.
Although the girl did not get sick, it can carry a deadly disease known as Chagas.
We talked with entomologists Howard Russell at Michigan State University to VERIFY: Does the kissing bug present a danger to Michiganders?
But first, we covered the basics.
“This is a pretty large insect, sort of flat along the back, it has a pointy head and a beak on the underside," Russell said. "Generally has little red spots along the margin of the abdomen.”
Favoring the face when they bite, they’re mostly active at night.
“It is a vector of Chagas disease, which is carried mostly by rodents," Russell said. "The bug picks it up from a reservoir rodent, essentially, and then passes the pathogen onto people.”
According to the CDC, only a few cases of Chagas disease from contact with the bugs are documented in the U.S., but it can cause serious heart and stomach illnesses.
Plus how it transmits the parasite is pretty gross.
“As they feed, if they happen to poop in a wound, or say in the lining of the eyes or the mucous membranes, the pathogen can be passed that way,” Russell said.
The CDC estimates around 300,000 people with Chagas disease live in the U.S., but most were infected in parts of Latin America. The bugs are typically found in the southern United States, Mexico, Central America, and South America.
“They're known to occur in Ohio and states just south of us, but I would think they're pretty rare there,” Russell said.
So we can VERIFY: Does the kissing bug present a danger to Michiganders?
“It does not, it's not known to occur in Michigan, so I don't think people have to worry too much about it," Russell said. "There's never been a kissing bug found in Michigan, and as far as I know there's been no reported cases of Chagas disease in Michigan.”
The CDC says if you find an insect you think might be a kissing bug, don’t squish it.
Slide the bug into a container and fill it with rubbing alcohol or freeze it.
Then you can take it to your local extension service, health department, or university lab for identification.
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