The Assassin Bug SUCKS!

From here.

I don’t think there’s an insect out there with a scarier name than the assassin bug (Triatoma Infestans). And trust me, they are GROSS.

These bugs are bloodsuckers, but that's NOT the gross part. Charles Darwin was once a victim of them: “At night I experienced an attack [of assassin bugs]. It is most disgusting to feel soft wingless insects, about an inch long, crawling over one's body."

Assassin bugs can give people something called Chagas disease. It’s fatal. (See, the bugs really ARE assassins!) But that's NOT the gross part.

Wikipedia

Assassin bugs live in North and South America, where they suck on rodents and bats. But humans are perfectly tasty to them as well. Once the assassin bug bites, it might feed for up to 30 minutes, with its body swelling up as it drinks.

Ooh, this is nasty: The assassin bug likes to crawl onto the face of humans and then suck blood from around the person’s mouth. Ick! This explains the OTHER nickname for it: “the kissing bug.”

That’s STILL not the gross part!

"Noooooo!"

The way humans get disease from assassin bugs might happen this way. The bug crawls on the sleeping person’s face and drinks blood from near his mouth. While it’s drinking, the bug poops. The assassin bug poop is where the GERMS are!

After the bug waddles off, the person wakes up. The person might scratch the itch of the bugbite, smearing the poop into his own skin and bloodstream. Or he could even rub his mouth and accidentally push the bug poop INTO his mouth. Blech!

A South American nickname for the assassin bug is vinchuca:  "that which lets itself fall." The bug gets that name because it climbs up onto the ceiling above a sleeping person and then drops from the roof onto the bed. Ugh.
Yes, THAT'S the gross part! And BTW, NPR has a great story on bugs, which is based on a new book called Wicked Bugs by Amy Stewart. ("Nooo!" photo from here.)