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The following are
some of the life habits of the kissing bedbugs:
• They are nocturnal
and photosensitive.
• They hide during the day and reproduce
during the night.
• During the day, they might hide in clothing,
sleeping bags, among others.
• They use to hide inside fissures in walls
and floors.
• They take refuge in places of the house
that are not very often cleaned and also in places
where there aren't objects in constant movement.
• Their existence in a house can be discovered
due to their yellow and black secretions that
mark the walls like ink.
• If they hide in high places, during the
night they fall down making a very particular
sound.
• If a mosquito net is used during the night,
the extremes should go under the mattress in order
to prevent the entrance of the insect. The skin
direct contact with the mosquito net should be
avoided because if the vinchuca is on the other
side it can bite through the mosquito net.
• When standing on the resting human or animal
that the insect is going to take its food from;
it unfolds its beak that is normally folded on
the lower part of its head, lean its extreme to
the skin and put in its long stylet, and injects
an irritant saliva and anticoagulant. Then, it
begins to suck blood during some minutes.
• The bite does not produce any pain or discomfort
in the moment. That's why the insect can eat and
then, leave without being noticed. The infection
is not produce during the bite, it is produced
when the feces of the vinchuca are in contact
with the skin.
• Once full of blood, the vinchuca might
look like a grape. It can not fly and comes back
to its shelter walking on the floor and walls
which is too tired for them and taking brakes
in the road that can last some minutes to hours.
• The resistance of vinchucas to fasting
is great. The nymph in the first stage of life
lives until 3 months without food and the nymph
in the fifth stage up to 200 days fasting.
Sources of Information
• Mal de Chagas
Basado en: Censo de 1991 y Doctora Elsa
Segura, del Instituto Mario Fatala Chaben.
Colegio Miraflores México
http://www.mflor.mx/materias/temas/malchagas/malchagas.htm
• The Kiss of Death:
The Biology of Chagas Disease
The University of Texas at Arlington
http://www.uta.edu/chagas/html/biolTinf.html
More Information
• The Kissing Bug
• Development
• Geographic
zones
• Life habits
• Other infectious
species
• Biological
Information
• Frequently Asked Questions
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