UA News

University of Arizona researchers need help from the Tucson community to collect kissing bugs - bloodsucking insects that transmit Chagas' Disease, an infection caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi.

Kissing bugs (Triatominae: Reduviidae) transmit the disease most commonly in South America, Central America and Mexico, and very rarely in the United States. In the U.S., the insects warrant serious attention because of the allergic reactions their bite can cause.

Teresa Gregory, Pablo Guerenstein, John Hildebrand and Carolina Reisenman, researchers in the Arizona Research Laboratories Division of Neurobiology, are collecting kissing bugs found in houses in Tucson and surrounding areas. The researchers hope to learn which species of the insect are here and if they are infected with the parasite.

The researchers are asking members of the Tucson community who find these nocturnal bugs to deliver them to the UA. Kissing bugs should be captured with a jar and not touched.

Kissing bugs should be delivered to:

Carolina Reisenman
ARL Division of Neurobiology
Gould-Simpson 613
1040 E. Fourth St.
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721-0077
Tel: 621-6631

To see the most common species found in Tucson, visit http://allergy.peds.arizona.edu/southwest/insects/triatoma.htm.For more information, visit the kissing bug project's Web site or contact Reisenman at carolina@neurobio.arizona.edu or Guerenstein at pgg@neurobio.arizona.edu.