Just made this meme to express my frustration at Boxelder bugs. No matter how many times I carry them out they find a way back in my house in Spring and Fall.
Note because I guess some folks need it: I don’t kill them, I pick them up and put them back outside!
Remind me what the bug is that carries the “makes your heart fall apart slowly” disease that was popular last year.
I think I kept mistaking these for those.
Triatoma infestans is the primary vector for Chagas’ disease, but it can be transmitted by other triatomines. Fun fact, they shit on your face and the infection comes from you rubbing their infected shit into the fresh open wound. It’s not from the bite itself. Thanks to climate change they’re migrating northward. Sleep tight!
Kissing bugs cause chagas, and they do look very similar
if you’re in south american countries. they are similar looking to assassin bugs which are predators instead of bloodsuckers.
I thought they were all kissing bugs. How do you tell them apart.
The biggest tell is the missing sucker tube. Though boxelder bugs are fairly vibrant in color, and generally are numerous/you know about them majority of your life.
Around me they’ve become far less common due to climate change sadly. Love the little guys, even if they used to easily overwhelm any house in the woods.
I feel like they are the same.