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HALP /an/ Anonymous
Hey. I come from /k/ in peace.

Just a little bit ago some bug tried to take me out, and the little bastard almost did. I guess he was trying to crawl around on my neck, and when I swatted him off me he either stung or bit my arm. I figure since he's a critter you guys might be able to tell me more about him, since a google search mostly turns up stuff about bees and wasps and some such.

The bite/sting mark is about the diameter of a dime, and has a red dot in the center. At first I thought maybe I'd gotten a metal fragment in my skin or something because it stung, but it got worse and after about 5 minutes my right arm stung so bad from my hand to my elbow that I couldn't close my hands.

Pics will be related, albeit huge.
>> Anonymous
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Pen cap for size reference.
>> Anonymous
Hmm seems it belongs in the stick bug family
>> Anonymous
>>280337
Maybe. I'll take a look.

I think that it's thorax is kinda nifty though, what with that sort of cobra look to it.

He is definately pissed at being in that container, though.
>> Anonymous
>>280338
KEEP IT AS A PET!!!
>> Anonymous
>>280339
I don't think he likes me very much.

He just sits in the same spot in the bottom of the cup and watches me.

If I move across the room, he'll turn to stare at me; if I move back, he'll follow me.

Normally I'd have torched his ass by now, but I figured if I started feeling sickly it'd be better to have him alive and intact for the folks at the hospital.
>> Anonymous
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>>280337
Me again, its not a stick bug
>> Anonymous
>>280342
That looks quite like it.

Wuzzat?
>> Anonymous
>>280343

>>280344
>> Anonymous
Many assassin bugs have been known to bite humans when not handled carefully. For some species the bite is known to be very painful, sometimes causing allergic reactions, and bites can become infected, as with any wound.

Some blood-sucking species, particularly Triatoma spp. and other members of the subfamily Triatominae (e.g., Paratriatoma hirsuta) , are also known as kissing bugs due to their habit of biting humans in their sleep on the soft tissue of the lips and eyes; a number of these haematophagous species, located in Central and South America, are able to transmit a potentially fatal trypanosome disease known as Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis).
>> Anonymous
>>280345
>>280346

I KNEW that son-of-a-bitch was trying to kill me!

I hit the bite mark with some peroxide; I dunno if it did much.

If it's not better a little later on this morning, I'll probably go see a doctor about it.

Thanks guys!
>> Anonymous
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Assassin Bugs can transmit diseases to humans and animals. Chaga's disease is one such disease and there is no specific treatment for it. The Assassin Bug's bite is very painful and can make humans sick. One member of the Assassin Bug family, called the Kissing bug, usually lives in beds and likes to bite humans in the face, near the mouth, while they are sleeping. The Mexican bedbug's bite can make people swell, vomit, and faint.
>> Anonymous
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Chagas' disease (also called American trypanosomiasis) is a human tropical parasitic disease which occurs in the Americas, particularly in South America. Its pathogenic agent is a flagellate protozoan named Trypanosoma cruzi, which is transmitted to humans and other mammals mostly by blood-sucking assassin bugs of the subfamily Triatominae (Family Reduviidae). Those insects are known by numerous common names varying by country, including benchuca, vinchuca, kissing bug, chipo, pito, chupança, and barbeiro. The most common insect species belong to the genera Triatoma, Rhodnius, and Panstrongylus. However, other methods of transmission are possible, such as ingestion of food contaminated with parasites, blood transfusion and fetal transmission.

The symptoms of Chagas' disease vary over the course of the infection. In the early, acute stage symptoms are mild and are usually no more than local swelling at the site of infection. As the disease progresses, over as much as twenty years, the serious chronic symptoms appear, such as heart disease and malformation of the intestines. If untreated, the chronic disease is often fatal. Current drug treatments for this disease are generally unsatisfactory, with the available drugs being highly toxic and often ineffective, particularly in the chronic stage of the disease.

Trypanosoma cruzi is a member of the same genus as the infectious agent of African sleeping sickness and the same order as the infectious agent of leishmaniasis, but its clinical manifestations, geographical distribution, life cycle and insect vectors are quite different.
>> Anonymous
Well, it is definately very painful, that's for sure.

My arm feels like somebody bashed it with a shovel or something. Goddamn.

I don't think I have to worry about Chega's Disease, though. I'm quite a bit farther north than where those ones live, aparently.

I guess it's most likely one of the "kissing bug" varieties.

Sorry for the typo's/spelling errors, hard to type with my right arm.
>> Anonymous
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The human disease occurs in two stages: the acute stage shortly after the infection, and the chronic stage that may develop over 10 years.

In the acute phase, a local skin nodule called a chagoma can appear at the site of inoculation. When the inoculation site is the conjunctival mucous membranes, the patient may develop unilateral periorbital edema, conjunctivitis, and preauricular lymphadenitis. This constellation of symptoms is referred to as Romaña's sign. The acute phase is usually asymptomatic, but may present symptoms of fever, anorexia, lymphadenopathy, mild hepatosplenomegaly, and myocarditis. Some acute cases (10 to 20%) resolve over a period of 2 to 3 months into an asymptomatic chronic stage, only to reappear after several years.

The symptomatic chronic stage may not occur for years or even decades after initial infection. The disease affects the nervous system, digestive system and heart. Chronic infections result in various neurological disorders, including dementia, damage to the heart muscle (cardiomyopathy, the most serious manifestation), and sometimes dilation of the digestive tract (megacolon and megaesophagus), as well as weight loss. Swallowing difficulties may be the first symptom of digestive disturbances and may lead to malnutrition. After several years of an asymptomatic period, 27% of those infected develop cardiac damage, 6% develop digestive damage, and 3% present peripheral nervous involvement. Left untreated, Chagas' disease can be fatal, in most cases due to the cardiomyopathy component.
>> Anonymous
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An infected triatomine insect vector feeds on blood and releases trypomastigotes in its feces near the site of the bite wound. The victim, by scratching the site of the bite, causes trypomastigotes to enter the host through the wound, or through intact mucosal membranes, such as the conjunctiva. Then, inside the host, the trypomastigotes invade cells, where they differentiate into intracellular amastigotes. The amastigotes multiply by binary fission and differentiate into trypomastigotes, then are released into the circulation as bloodstream trypomastigotes. These trypomastigotes infect cells from a variety of biological tissues and transform into intracellular amastigotes in new infection sites. Clinical manifestations and cell death at the target tissues can occur because of this infective cycle. For example, it has been shown by Austrian-Brazilian pathologist Dr. Fritz Köberle in the 1950s at the Medical School of the University of São Paulo at Ribeirão Preto, Brazil, that intracellular amastigotes destroy the intramural neurons of the autonomic nervous system in the intestine and heart, leading to megaintestine and heart aneurysms, respectively.