I still have the specimen - I guess I could submit it to them?

and i found one in my house, a foot away from my bed. i should’ve kept it. i’m glad i put a cup over it. usually when i find bugs in the house i just let them do their thing. but because i didn’t know what it was, i cupped it. it was on a red background so i couldn’t see the red on its “shoulders” and around its sides. but i knew it was likely an assassin bug. once i moved it into the cup to take it outside, i saw what it was so clearly. a juvenile triatoma. there’s two in VA so i don’t know which. i posted it on here for confirmation. i wish i would’ve kept it but i went ahead and flushed it because i have a child, and i already have health issues and being bitten, we can’t risk. clearly they can get in. it was way too close to my bed - not even 12” - when i found it in the morning. i do have 6 bites on my leg, but i don’t think it’s from this. the bug was super flat so i don’t think it had eaten. anyway - have you ever seen anymore in all these years?

Yes, actually, just last year I returned home from being at my dad's for multiple months, and when I opened the cabinet under the kitchen sink, there was a dead one there. Thankfully dead!! That's the second one found inside the house. I rent a basement apartment, and all kinds of insects show up in here, so it's clearly not hard for things to get in. I'm glad there have been only two, and the first one was upstairs.

If it sets you at ease, I have been told multiple times by knowledgeable people that, though these may test positive when sent in, they don't really spread chagas here. That seems strange to me, but the explanation given is that the ones that live around here, for whatever reason, don't tend to poop before they depart after they bite you. If you know how the whole thing works, that's pretty crucial: They bite your lip, suck your blood, then deposit pathogen-laden poop near the wound. In your sleep, you feel an itch, and wipe - and that's how it gets into the wound, into your bloodstream. If they don't poop on you, then there is no pathogen to get in there.

Or so I've been told. I keep hoping it's true. I've never heard of anyone around here getting chagas, so maybe it is true.

and i found one in my house, a foot away from my bed. i should’ve kept it. i’m glad i put a cup over it. usually when i find bugs in the house i just let them do their thing. but because i didn’t know what it was, i cupped it. it was on a red background so i couldn’t see the red on its “shoulders” and around its sides. but i knew it was likely an assassin bug. once i moved it into the cup to take it outside, i saw what it was so clearly. a juvenile triatoma. there’s two in VA so i don’t know which. i posted it on here for confirmation. i wish i would’ve kept it but i went ahead and flushed it because i have a child, and i already have health issues and being bitten, we can’t risk. clearly they can get in. it was way too close to my bed - not even 12” - when i found it in the morning. i do have 6 bites on my leg, but i don’t think it’s from this. the bug was super flat so i don’t think it had eaten. anyway - have you ever seen anymore in all these years?