Sorry the picture isn't clearer...the blossoms face down so I'm trying to do a "trillium selfie" up into the sky, and the wind was blowing besides...still you get the idea.

The Kissing Bug is in the news again today. Took this pic 4 years ago of one in our garage, At that time the bug was first being reported as expanding it's more southern states range into the north. It's bite can be deadly.

lgmd, I want to *like* your pic, but I just can't...

Annie, I understand, but do read up on these bugs and consider it a warning for your safety.

I know lgmd...fortunately, they haven't reached our state....yet!

my friend Jennifer tested her new camera on me yesterday

Annie....red? Very pretty!

I heard about the kissing bug...just awful!

Moni ....your iris are waaaaaaaaay ahead of mine. I hope mine have blooms this year. 1st year in.

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Begonia

“Kissing bug”— that’s a new one on me. I’ll have to research it. See how it looks like a leaf? Better wear gloves when gardening.

I just picked up one of those bugs the other day. Seriously. I let it crawl on my hand and showed it to my husband, and then let it go. I thought it was an assassin bug. I will go read up on them.

Watch out Annie - they're on their way. They have been confirmed in Delaware, NJ and PA. so it may not be long.

Taken a couple of years ago. . .

Rusty

cameilla

The kissing bug has been all over the news lately. Serious threat! Stay away from them.

My flower bed is absolutely full of these beautiful flowers. Great year for them here. My iris have not bloomed yet

We have them out here. They are called kissing bugs because they tend to bite the face around the eyes or mouth. Bites generally occur at night when people are sleeping. We had a student come to school one day after being bitten near her eye. Her eye was swollen shut and the skin around it was bruised. It took weeks to heal. Kissing bugs are nasty little suckers but besides the student, I only know one other person who has been bitten so I don't think it's something that happens very often.

Tillandsias. I had to bring the one on the bottom indoors to prevent birds from eating the flowers.

The picture igmd_gaz posted is a Arilus cristatus AKA Wheel Bug or Assassin Bug

It is a beneficial predatory insect that feed voraciously on other insects often ones considered garden pests. This picture from Wikipedia shows one sucking the very life out of a Japanese Beetle.

The Wheel Bug is capable of inflicting a serious painful bite to a human if you mess with it, but it does not seek out and bite and feed on humans or other mammals.

A key determining feature is the curved, spikey "wheel" atop the thorax.

So while "Kissing Bugs" are dangerous and are spreading northward from their original tropical environs, and while "Kissing Bugs" are in the same family, Reduviidae, as the "Wheel Bug" they are a different subfamily, and a different genus, and different species.

Pictures not mine but credited...

Source: https://citybugs.tamu.edu/2015/12/01/kissing-bug-identification-requires-closer-look/

An Easter gift from a friend finally bloomed yesterday!!!

Few pics I just took.

Love spring weeping willows.

And farms.

And a car at Walmart yesterday.

Thank you, Bob. You have restored my faith in my ability to identify our local bugs. When I googled kissing bugs, I saw a different creature entirely. I have seen those here as well, but no fear...they aren't a major concern. The assassin bug I let climb onto my finger had landed into a bowl of water I keep on the steps for my dogs. After his rescue, and being shown to my husband, he went on his merry way.

Bob, my picture is NOT a Wheel bug. At least that is what the entomologist who examined it told us. It is an Eastern Kissing Bug we were told. Subtle differences in Kissing Bugs in different areas he told us, and that there was no identifying curved wheel of the Wheel bug on mine.

I'm going to disagree. Your picture is taken from directly overhead so the raised spiked wheel isn't as obvious as on my two pictures, but the spikes are plainly there, and the different lengths and foreshortening of those spikes are exactly what would appear if they were on a curved wheel. Additionally the fact that the center of the thorax region is ever so slightly blurry indicates it is at a different distance from the camera, further indicating that there is a curved wheel.

If the entomologist made that pronouncement based solely on that one picture, he didn't look very close. If you actually brought the insect to him and he determined that it was a Kissing Bug rather than Wheel Bug, then he simply isn't very good at his job.

Maybe so, Bob. I did take the bug to the entomologist who volunteers at a gardening booth at my county farm show. I can see what you are saying about the picture. Whatever, folks reading this are now forewarned about what a Kissing Bug is and can do.

Pieris mountain fire. The foliage is just as beautiful as the flowers to me.

Love all the pictures! Having issues hitting the like button once again.

Thanks, Iris!

I sometimes have trouble with the like button when I'm on my tablet.

As I understand it, it's the disease that the kissing bug may carry that is dangerous: Trypanosoma cruzi that causes Chagas disease in humans.

I had long heard that Chagas disease from the bite of an "Assassin Bug" is what Charles Darwin died from. But I had also been told when we were doing the bug collection project in biology in high school that "Assassin Bugs" were beneficial predatory insects (along with Praying Mantises and Dragonflies) and were told if we killed one to include in the collection it wouldn't count towards the grade.

The explanation is that while the same common name is applied to both insects, they are different species. Also somewhat related and similar looking bugs are the Squash Bug (which damage/kill my squash plants) and the western conifer seed bug (which reportedly sometime will drill holes in PEX plumbing pipes)

Also in reading more about Kissing Bugs, it says they transmit Chagas Disease by first biting (often near a persons mouth) and then pooping on or near the site of the bite. Ewwwww. It also stated that the particular species of Kissing Bugs that are spreading north across America are somewhat less dangerous because they typically don't poop on you after biting, (again ewww) and because its much less likely that they would have previously bitten a person or animal that carries the Chagas disease parasite, at least in locations where the bugs are newly moving into.

So while it isn't a dire imminent danger, it is a new danger that I wasn't aware of, and if they are in Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, surely they are in Virginia too, and even if one isn't carrying Chagas Disease, its bite often causes a serious reaction (as Dawn described above) and can even cause anaphylactic shock.

Edited to add: Plus since, as of yet, there is no vaccine against nor effective treatment for Chagas Disease, it is kind of a big concern.