Comments on: Assassin Bug Nymph

By: Tim Eisele

Tim Eisele — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 09:12:27 +0000

I think that this is the plantain you meant:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantago_major

I’ve never seen that one growing locally, the plantain we have growing around here is this one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantago_lanceolata

By: Janice Silver

Janice Silver — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 03:22:11 +0000

I have heard that chewing up some plaintain from the yard and putting that on a bite and wrapping it up for a while helps with the pain and sting and has antibacterial properties. And no, not the banana. Google it.

By: Tim Eisele

Tim Eisele — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 13:23:48 +0000

While some assassin bugs can carry Chagas, I don’t think that this particular one (the Masked Hunter) is one of them. In order to transmit disease, it would have to not only bite you, but also have previously bitten another mammal that is hosting the disease. There are a number of species of assassin bugs that routinely bite humans and other mammals, but the Masked Hunter prefers other small arthropods and is only likely to bite a human if provoked.

By: Linda Sommercorn DDS

Linda Sommercorn DDS — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 20:23:00 +0000

These bugs can carry parasitic diesease called chagas and pass it on to humans if bitten. The parasite is actually referred to as T.Cruzi. The prevalence in US has increased since the 80′s due to immigrants from south america and Mexico. It has been estimated that at lease 1% of thes immigrants have the disease themselves. I think it might be a good idea to get your daughter tested for this.

By: Tim Eisele

Tim Eisele — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 08:08:33 +0000

Thanks for the first-hand account of the bite, it’s good to know what the actual effect is if it happens. Glad this post helped you identify the bug that did it. From everything I’ve read about arthropod bites, disinfecting the wound like that is an excellent idea, because a lot of the more severe consequences of bites are from secondary bacteria infections.

By: Torria

Torria — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 00:17:58 +0000

Hey, my 18 yr. old daughter got bitten 2 days ago by this nasty little bug, the adult version. She has an ugly, sizable hole in her forarm and its raised and red around the hole site, about the size of a 50 cent piece.

She had crawled into bed and hugged her pillow to her by sticking her arm under her pillow when it struck! She found him right away and smooshed it and flushed him away. She just showed me the wound again 2+ days since the initial attack and the hole is still very pronounced and its still swollen, the red is more pink though. Shes been putting peroxide on it and a hydrocortozone cream because it itched like crazy she said. Thankfully she hasn’t had any other allergic reaction from it. Thanks for posting the photos you have here, it helped us identify the little critter.

By: sandra

sandra — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 12:56:10 +0000

What a cute little guy.