by Mike Farley
In the summer of 2018 I wrote an article about Assassin bugs. The family Reduviidae began to peak my interest once I realized I had documented about half the species in Williamson County.
During that research, I learned more about a sub-family of that group known as the Kissing bugs. The Triatomine family is a nocturnal group that requires a blood meal from mammals. Research shows that of the 11 species of kissing bugs in the US, Texas has the largest diversity. Some 55% are known to be infected with the Trypanosoma cruzi parasite that can cause Chagas disease. These results are gathered from a collection of 3000 specimens, most of which were sent to the lab by ordinary citizens all across Texas.
In late September of 2018, I found my first kissing bug crawling on the concrete foundation of my workplace, a newly relocated manufacturing business in a brand new building just east of SH 130 on SH 29. The area is surrounded by properties containing, chickens, goats, sheep, horses, and cattle.
I captured the insect and preserved it in alcohol. This allows for the best genetic testing versus dispatching with ethyl acetate. Once removed and dried, I packaged it up in a small protective container for shipping to the Hamer lab in College Station. My initial email communications with the lab were not met with immediate response until I added an image of the bug. At this point, my bug was on the radar and on its way to being a statistic for the good of all mammals, especially dogs and humans.
Dr. Sarah Hamer, who runs the lab, realized early on that the citizen reporting and submissions have a much larger impact than with staff-only collecting.
After about a 3-month wait, I received notice from the lab that my bug had a negative result for the presence of T. cruzi parasite. The image included here is from another kissing bug I found the following day at the same area.
News release: http://vetmed.tamu.edu/news/press-releases/dr-sarah-hamer-protects-human-animal-lives-through-kissing-bugs-project
Link: https://kissingbug.tamu.edu/
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