Pucker Up (AKA: Sharing the love)

I’ve had kissing bugs hitting my newsfeed like crazy, so now’s a great time for a primer on bugs.

To start with, there are just shy of 4,000 species in the US. All true bugs have piercing sucking mouthparts and all are predatory. Some are predatory on plants, though! Those that are predatory on other living things can be general predators like assassin bugs, or they may be very specialized, like bee assassin bugs. Some of the plant feeders are species like boxelder bugs or chinch bugs. Whether it’s plants or animals, they use their mouthparts to stab through tissue and suck up the juices inside.

The order has quite a few aquatic species. There are giant water bugs (AKA toe-biters), water striders, toad bugs, and many more. Some of these have pretty cool ways of "holding" air like little SCUBA tanks so they can stay underwater for long periods of time.

Some of our most common pest species of bugs are fall pests. Boxelder bugs, stink bugs, kudzu bugs, and more all like to congregate together, looking for a nice warm place to sit out the winter. As temperatures start to cool down and their food source is diminishing, they put out an aggregation pheromone, calling all their nearby friends.

One of our newest invasive bugs is the spotted lanternfly. Not a fly, it’s actually a bug. These are all over the Mid-Atlantic states right now, and while they are beautifully colored, they are a big agricultural pest and a seasonal invader for all kinds of structures. If you haven’t seen them in the wild yet, they are fairly large, about the size of a quarter.

The most well-known bug is probably the common bed bug. While other true bugs can and do bite people, bed bugs feed exclusively on humans. Populations can grow to huge numbers when not controlled. They are great hitch-hikers, riding on suitcases, wheelchairs, housekeeping carts, and anything that goes back and forth between locations.

Back to kissing bugs. Kissing bugs are a type of assassin bug and all are predators. Most are predators on other insects and arthropods. Some, like kissing bugs, are blood feeders. A common assassin bug is the wheel bug with the crest on its pronotum looking like a cogwheel. There are ten different species of kissing bugs in North America and their common name is actually conenose bugs. Especially in south and central America, these will invade houses and feed on animals as well as people. Like bed bugs, they are mostly nocturnal, feeding when people are asleep/inactive.

Some other biting bugs in the US:

• Minute pirate bugs – while they are typically feeding on small arthropods, they will take advantage of nearby people.

• Bat bugs – again, mostly feeding on bats, but when their food supply dries out, they will feed on people.

• Giant water bugs – there’s a reason they get the common name “toe-biter”.

• Notable mention – stink bugs won’t bite people, but they will make them smell!

For more on kissing bugs and Chagas disease, you can wait for my next article in PCT! In the meantime, if you need a better plan for dealing with fall invaders, we can do that for you, contact us!

(Photo: Gabriel Hamer)Examples of the 10 species of kissing bugs found in the US (one additional species is rarely recorded). The black bar represents approximately 1 inch, or 25mm