Blood sucking cone nose bugs...how to live with them?

I never even heard the name of this bug until three years ago. We have lived in this county in the Ozarks for forty years...in tents, hogans with no walls, unscreened houses, etc. and I never knew they existed. We get along with brown recluses, black widows, ticks(kind of), mosquitos, chiggers...all kinds of critters, but these'kissing bugs' have me totally grossed out. We have read everything about them and have spent way too much time caulking and sealing cracks...that is just impossible. I am getting bit once or twice every summer and we have found four of them in our bedding and on our screened in sleeping porch already this year. They come in the night and suck your blood...no pain...just the flat red spot the next day. And to get to that stage they have been sucking rats or bats or mice and armadillos or something and I understand they can transmitt disease and that you can suddenly become allergic to the bite.
This is the most 'civilized' house we have lived in and I think there is no ecological balance between outside and inside.
Any ideas???

More and more species of conenose bugs are becoming 'domesticated'.
They are attracted to the house lights, and once near, they vector on the CO you exhale.

Indeed, they can cause disease. In Latin America, chagas disease affects millions each year.

See: http://www.uta.edu/chagas/

I got bit by these a few times when I was living in an old army tent in central Georgia. Fire ants, too. I read in an old book about putting the four posts of the bed in cans of oil or soapy water to "moat" out small crawly things. Seemed to work, provided I made sure no blankets, etc. touched the floor....

The adults have wings. They fly to their intended destination.

No lights near doors at night. They will wait till you open them.

crysthanthenums planted around perimeter of building.
Lemon grass is supposed to help too, but it may just be masking the CO2 or lactic acid plume.
I am having good luck with cinnamon oil as bug repellant, may want to try burning a stick out on the porch.

Boric acid mixed with water and soap, sprayed into cracks in wood and along roof eves.

We use travel nets for about 6 weeks out here.

Thanks, John...the images are great??? We have only seen the adult. They don't fly very well evidently. I am worried they are going through their first stages on our bat population. We have a bat box on our house (put there to provide a close by roost for when we got them out of our attic).

Alder, our bed is on the floor...we are one with whatever critters are there, I guess. thanks!

Thank you Morgan...I have been thinking netting. It has turned cooler at night lately so haven't seen any but before that we would find one or two a night either stuck to tape that we have placed around on the floor or in our bedding. As soon as it warms up again we are set up to try the heating pad surrounded by sticky side up tape...they are supposed to be attracted to the heat. An alka seltzer tab on a damp sponge in the center is supposed to make it work even better:) I have sprayed the porch with borax and water...but not boric acid.

They grew up hiding in roofing thatch and sticks. So they will try and hide there during the day.
Spray up high.

You can also put a dusting of boric acid under the edges of the bed, where they will try to burrow.
Borax tends to be to chunky to stick to their bodies, but will work ok if mixed into the sprayer, but let it sit, or will clog the tip.

Remember, if there is a window in the door, cover it. And don't leave the porch light on if it is next to the door.

Also might want to try burning myrrh, pine tar, and besides the cinammon.

Alder Burns wrote:I got bit by these a few times when I was living in an old army tent in central Georgia. Fire ants, too. I read in an old book about putting the four posts of the bed in cans of oil or soapy water to "moat" out small crawly things. Seemed to work, provided I made sure no blankets, etc. touched the floor....

Did you ever have ny more than a local reaction to their bite? and did you ever catch one on you? That is what bothers me more than anything...a tick or mosquito gives you some warning...these things are like vampires in the night???

I wonder if one of these stink bug traps would help? www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwUuHhWYvDA (it basically looks like a minnow trap, only it has a battery powered light inside it, it is made from a 2liter pop bottle & some tape)

james beam

Morgan Morrigan wrote:They grew up hiding in roofing thatch and sticks. So they will try and hide there during the day.
Spray up high.

You can also put a dusting of boric acid under the edges of the bed, where they will try to burrow.
Borax tends to be to chunky to stick to their bodies, but will work ok if mixed into the sprayer, but let it sit, or will clog the tip.

Remember, if there is a window in the door, cover it. And don't leave the porch light on if it is next to the door.

Also might want to try burning myrrh, pine tar, and besides the cinammon.

We haven't seen any for awhile...it turned cooler for a week or so and now is warming back up...we are catching recluses on the tape though! I mix the borax with warm water and it dissolves OK and doesnt clog the sprayer. I think I have to special order boric acid at the pharmacy now. We are sealing a few more cracks and I am going to get some myrrh...I love the smell of it anyway. Thanks for helping:)
...have you ever been bit by one?

james beam wrote:I wonder if one of these stink bug traps would help? www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwUuHhWYvDA (it basically looks like a minnow trap, only it has a battery powered light inside it, it is made from a 2liter pop bottle & some tape)

james beam

Hi, James...I can't look at a link on this kndle but I will check it out next time I am at the library computer. A trap is probably a good idea... we tried a makeshift one that I had read about with a heating pad to attract them but did not have any luck. They are attracted to light, heat and CO2. Thanks for the suggestion!

I was getting inexplicable bites...bigger than ant or mosquito bites, and too consistently to be spider bites. I knew it was happening at night, because I'd wake up bitten in the morning....usually only once every several days. Then one night I got woken up by something crawling and threw back the sheets and saw it. And I had a fresh bite to prove that's what it was. I jarred the critter and pulled out my bug book in the morning and that clinched the ID....

would de work if you made a line at your entery points or do they only fly to get into your house. i would suggest guinea hens but it might be to late for that and most people cant take the noise. thanks for telling me about them now i have another bug to watch out for lol.

The place I was staying in New Mexico had them. I took an army mosquito net, split it vertically and attached Velcro, and then duct taped the bottom edges to the underside of the mattress. The bedding was inside the netting. A pain, but sure was nice not getting bit by those monsters.

I have read that wrapping duct tape sticky side out around your bed post legs helps. Also orange oil is used as organic pesticide - smells nice too. I am amazed at how far north these buggers are moving . They need blood to complete their life cycle so if you can keep them out and then starve them out the cycle can end itself. Apparently they prefer rats and possums to humans .

Morgan Morrigan wrote:They grew up hiding in roofing thatch and sticks. So they will try and hide there during the day.

You might want to create a few little habitats like this to hang in out of the way spots or under the bed. Diatomaceous earth could be applied to these nests and could also be applied to old sock that cover bed legs.

Try some DE. Food grade.
I also hear making a tincture of yarrow repels bugs.
You can also buy what they call no-see-um netting.
When we lived in Florida, it worked very well. However it seemed to me that it does seem to cut down a bit on airflow.
Guess I have been lucky so far...
Thank you to the poster for the pictures. I have seen some around here.