Experts of the Ecology Institute on September 9 discovered a nest of more than 200 blood-sucking assassin bugs in a house in Tu Liem district, Hanoi. Previously, experts only collected 7-8 bugs in a house.

They destroyed these bugs and collected some as samples.

“This is the largest group that we have discovered since the first bugs were reported in Hanoi two months ago. We previously went to this area to seek bugs, but didn’t find any,” noted Dr. Truong Xuan Lam from the Institute for Ecology and Biological Resources.

Experts were very surprised seeing hundreds of bugs in this house, including adults and eggs. Up to 60-70 percent of bugs had blood in their stomachs.

“Perhaps people in this house were bitten, but didn’t know,” Dr. Lam suggested.

The public was previous stirred by information about the appearance of blood-sucking assassin bugs in two big cities, Da Nang and Hanoi, an insect said to transmit Chagas disease to humans.

Epidemiologists countered that it is very difficult to catch it from these bugs, because Vietnam doesn’t have any reported cases of Chagas disease.

PV