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About Applegater. (Jacksonville, OR) 2008-current | View Entire Issue (May 1, 2016)
18 Spring 2016 Applegater Notes from a Rogue entomologist When insects meet the press BY RICHARD J. HILTON Insects and the press have a love- hate relationship—the press loves to hate insects. A couple of examples came up over the past few months. At the end of 2015 there was a national news story about an increase in “kissing bugs” and Chagas disease (see note below), which kissing bugs can carry. Kissing bugs are large blood-sucking insects that will feed on a person’s face while they are sleeping, thus the name. As usual, there was some truth in this story, but it got way more press than it deserved. Since 1955 there have been fewer than 40 cases of Chagas disease transmission documented in the US, but it’s a given that whenever you have a story featuring a large blood- sucking insect, you are well into “if it bleeds it leads” territory. I got a call from one of the local news outlets, and explained that kissing bugs are not an issue locally. However, after the story aired nationally, I fielded three inquiries about kissing bugs, including one from a doctor’s office. In all cases, the suspected kissing bug was our native and quite common western boxelder bug (also known as the maple bug) that is a frequent home invader. I got off easy—a lab at Texas A&M University received 800 inquiries, resulting in fewer than two dozen cases that actually involved kissing bugs. There is no doubt that insects that feed on human blood make good copy. In fairness, I admit that I am not entirely innocent in this regard—I have penned columns on bedbugs and, more recently, head lice. But the press does have a way of amplifying things. In researching the kissing bug story, I found out that kissing bugs The boxelder (or maple) bug, a common home invader (www.volcanolands.com/wp-content/ uploads/2014/08/Boxelder-Bug-1.jpg). have been making headlines for years. In 1899 L.O. Howard, one of the premier entomologists of the time, commented on stories about a kissing- bug “epidemic”: “By ‘epidemic’ is meant the newspaper epidemic, for every insect bite where the biter was not at once recognized was attributed to the popular and somewhat mysterious creature which had been given such an attractive name.” Another story on insects that got some national press concerned research done at North Carolina State University, where all the insects found in 50 houses were identified. This was a fascinating study of the diversity of insects and other arthropods, such as spiders, that show up in our homes. The headline or lead invariably focused on the finding that the average house contained over 100 species of insects, making it sound like we are literally surrounded by insects! But in combing through the original study and hearing one of the authors interviewed on the Jefferson Burn reminder Before burning outdoors any time of year, check with your fire district to make sure that day is an official burn day and not a NO burn day. No illegal burning! Jackson County • 541-776-7007 Josephine County • 541-476-9663 (Press 3) Advertisers ! For rates and other information, contact: Ron Turpen 541-601-1867 ron.turpen@gmail.com Next deadline: May 1 Exchange, I understood that the vast majority of the insects identified were minute, and that the researchers were not finding the insects that live in our houses so much as the insects that die there. Many small insects fly or crawl into homes and cannot survive long. The insects collected in this study were more often dead than alive, with windowsills and even spider webs being particularly good places to find specimens. Four groups were found in every house: ants, carpet beetles, gall midges, and cobweb spiders, with an honorable mention to psocids (book lice), which were found in all but one house. Ants and cobweb spiders were no big surprise; neither were carpet beetles, especially since dead insects are one of their favorite foods. Gall midges (very tiny flies) have no business being in a house; they essentially float in like aerial plankton. Book lice were interesting. Small and innocuous, they are known to be house inhabitants, although I have never seen one in a home. The only book lice infestation I have observed locally was years ago in a chinchilla farm (and you read that correctly). I suspected the high humidity where the chinchillas were being reared was a cause of the problem, as book lice thrive in humid conditions, which might explain their prevalence in North Carolina, especially in summer months when this study was conducted. But, to my mind, the most curious result of this research was not what species were found, but what species they did not find. Not a single maple bug was seen (and no kissing bugs, either). Richard J. Hilton 541-772-5165 ext. 227 Senior Faculty Research Assistant / Entomologist Oregon State University-Southern Oregon Research & Extension Center richardhilton@oregonstate.edu Note: Chagas disease is a debilitating infection that harms the victim in two stages: an acute phase that begins about a week after the bug bite and causes fever and occasional swelling at the site of the bite, and a chronic phase that shows up as long as 25 years after exposure, where the patient’s organs are irreversibly damaged. Organ damage primarily targets the heart and digestive system (http://mentalfloss. com/article/73604/1899-kissing-bug- epidemic-probably-wasn’t).
