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Photo#194142
Flying beetle like bug? - Reduvius personatus

Flying beetle like bug? - Reduvius personatus
Lisbon, Ransom County, North Dakota, USA
June 25, 2008
Size: around an inch in length
This bug is a common sight at the farm we just moved from in Lisbon, North Dakota. Mostly seen at night, flying around the house or hidden under a shirt on the floor, or a nightlight on the wall, or after moving our boxes out of the attic numerous dead ones were found up there, and sadly now they are at our new house (where they weren't before...). You never see more then one at a time (alive). My mother-in-law had the misfortune of slipping her arm under a pillow where one was hiding. They have this needle like thing where there mouth is, after a great deal of pain I detour my children from playing with them and encourage them to alert me so I can remove them from the house. I just would really like to know what these are and how I can keep them out of my house. I can handle flies, spiders and the ordinary beetles that come in from the farm but these I would love to not see inside my home.

It's an assassin bug
I see at least a couple on our pages that are similar - Masked Hunter
(below) is one possibility, but there are other similar spp.



It would be able to inflict a painful bite if handled, but humans are not their target prey, if that's any consolation.

 
Masked hunter.
These are definitely the masked hunter....I would be concerned about their presence as well, but because that would also indicate the presence of their principal indoor prey: bed bugs! I would carefully inspect the bedframe, mattresses, nightstand, etc for bed bugs. You can be bitten by bed bugs and not even know it. The nymphs of the masked hunter will be masquerading as animated 'dust bunnies,' so be on the lookout for those as well.

 
Thank you for all the help. I
Thank you for all the help. I have done more online searching about the masked hunter and we are now doing some thorough cleaning and inspecting. Are bed bugs only in beds though? We have all relatively new mattresses and none of us has woken with bite marks. In total there is 7 beds in the house and only 1 is older then 4 years.
I read the masked hunter occasionally picks other prey but am still searching what those are. We had loads of attic flies, mud daubers, basic beetles (with the red heads) that come in on the wood, spiders by the ton, teeny black beetles, and centipedes (although those I have only found dead, none living). This site has been extremely helpful though and thank you to all those who's interest in bugs has helped those of us who tend to be more fearful of them.

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