North Texas Kissing Bugs Carry Potentially Killer Disease

The Daily Meal Staff|Oct. 30, 2014 7:45 pm EST

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NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - When Alissa Perez spotted the bug crawling into her house in Wichita Falls, she did a double take. The thing looked weird. So she took a picture and then flushed it. Little did she know then, she had just met a kissing bug. So named because it attacks exposed skin — sometimes near the mouth or eyes — while you're sleeping. You may get swelling at the site of the bite, or you may not know what happened. But the kissing bug can carry something called Chagas disease, a potentially deadly condition, which attacks the heart. It may be decades before the damage is done. But much like mosquitoes and West Nile, not every kissing bug carries Chagas disease, sometimes called the "silent killer".

Perez only realized what the bug was after she posted her picture to social media. Says Perez, "Several of my friends in the area had actually seen the bug as well." She's glad she grabbed it before one of her three kids — all under five — got to it.

(Source: CDC and James Gathany)

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Kissing bugs aren't just in Wichita Falls. The bugs are a Latin American import, but now they're in 27 states, especially those in the South. When we asked people on our CBS11 Facebook page if they had seen the bug, we got a ton of responses. Here's where our viewers spotted the bugs:

Addison, Alvarado, Anna, Arlington, Azle, Beaumont, Bells, Benbrook, Boyd, Burkburnett, Burleson, Crowley, Cleburne, Decatur, Frisco, Forney, Ft. Worth, Garland, Godley, Granbury, Grand Prairie, Grapevine, Haltom City, Haslet, Keller, Kaufman, Krum, Lake Dallas, Lake Worth, Little Elm, Lewisville, Mansfield, McKinney, Meridian, Mesquite, Midlothian, Millsap, Mineral Wells, Murphy, Mt. Pleasant, Newark, North Richland Hills, Plano, Pleasant Grove, Princeton, Red Oak, Rhome, St. Paul, Southlake, Springtown, Stephenville, Trenton, White Settlement, Woodville, Wylie

There's a more scientific listing. Researchers at Texas A &M in College of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences are tracking the bug. They sent us a list of towns in North Texas where where people have seen kissing bugs. We used their list to create the following map:

Click Image to Enlarge

TAMU has documented Kissing Bug sightings (credit: KTVT Art Dept.)

The veterinary researchers are tracking the bug because it bites humans and animals. There aren't any vaccines for Chagas disease and only an experimental treatment for humans.

Click here to report bug sightings to TAMU.

"If people see or come in contact, don't touch the bug with your hands. Take a picture and send the bug to the laboratory. We can test it for infection," said researcher Sarah Hamer.

Finally, the CDC has more information on both the kissing bug and Chagas disease.

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