In a person who has been sensitized by previous bites the injected saliva may cause a severe reaction requiring medical attention. Most of the bites occur in the home, often when the person is asleep, and most often during the late spring and summer months. If the bite produces a severe reaction, see your doctor. He may prescribe medicines to reduce the reaction or recommend desensitization antigens. The eggs of conenoses are laid in nests of animals, such as wood rats.
Immature insects require a blood meal each of the five times they molt.
The young resemble their parents except that they are smaller and have no wings. Certain nonblood-feeding bugs similar in size and shape to conenoses may inflict painful bites. Triatoma and other closely related bugs carry the organisms causing Chagas' diseases which occurs throughout much of Central and South America. Conenoses are sometimes called Kissing bogs, steelpin bugs, China bedbugs, cross bugs, diamondback bugs, or Wallapi tigers. Destroy sources of bugs and their hosts around your house . . .