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Case of the Week 29

The following insect was found in a patient’s home in the Northeast U.S. The patient wanted to know if he should be concerned about potential disease transmission. What is the identify of this insect? What would you tell the patient’s physician?

(Note – this is a good example of how insects are submitted to the laboratory for diagnosis. They are rarely in perfect condition!)

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Looks like a squash bug to me. I collect them from my house in the Northeast and pass them off as a quasi imitation of reduviid bugs at micro plate rounds. I defer to entymologists for definitive ID.

Thanks for the comments James. If you see another one, would you be willing it send it to me? I’d love to take a closer look at it. We had to send this one back to the client…