Deadliest Insect - Hemiptera – kissing bugs

The hemiptera classification is wide and varied including all of the so-called ‘true bugs’. Most have distinctive ‘sucking’ mouthparts that resemble tubes. Most, in fact, feed on plant sap in one form or another, but a few, such as the kissing bug, feed on blood of larger animals. The bug can transmit Chagas Disease, and it is described in Wiki as follows: “The symptoms of Chagas’ disease vary over the course of the infection. In the early, acute stage symptoms are mild and are usually no more than local swelling at the site of infection. As the disease progresses, over as much as twenty years, the serious chronic symptoms appear, such as heart disease and malformation of the intestines. If untreated, the chronic disease is often fatal. Current drug treatments for this disease are generally unsatisfactory, with the available drugs being highly toxic and often ineffective, particularly in the chronic stage of the disease.”