Kissing Bugs: Feeding in the Wild on Humans?

Neil M. Ampel, MD

Eight kissing bugs at an outdoor museum in Arizona all had DNA evidence of feeding on humans; three of these bugs harbored Trypanosoma cruzi.

Kissing bugs belong to the family Reduviidae, subfamily Triatominae. They obtain blood meals from mammalian hosts and in Latin America are the vector of Trypanosoma cruzi — the cause of Chagas disease. Across the southwestern U.S., bites from triatomines are not uncommon and have been a cause of allergic reactions; most bites occur in homes after the insects are attracted by lights in the evening. But might triatomines in the Southwest also feed on humans outdoors, and might they harbor T. cruzi?

To answer this question, researchers collected triatomines in the evening at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, an outdoor display of local flora and fauna near Tucson. Using universal vertebrate primers for the mitochondrial 12S ribosomal gene, they tested 8 of the 134 insects they captured to determine blood meal sources. All eight insects tested showed DNA evidence of having fed on human blood, and three of them were infected with T. cruzi.

Citation(s):

Klotz SA et al. Free-roaming kissing bugs, vectors of Chagas disease, feed often on humans in the Southwest. Am J Med 2014 May; 127:421.