Chagas Disease - Please look
A few days ago one of my dogs was diagnosed with Chagas disease. I had never heard of it so I thought I'd post a warning in case others haven't heard of it either.
It is spread by the blood sucking kissing beetles (also called Assassin beetles). It is usually fatal for dogs and humans can get it also. It's usually thought of as a disease of central and south america and is probably under diagnosed here but some studies have found up to 30% of the beetles in our area are infected with the parasite.
The beetles are nocturnal. So if you see them around your house you may want to do some spraying and tell your kids not to mess with them.
Here's some pics of the evil beetles...
A baby one...
And the wiki link if you want to read more about the disease
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chagas_disease
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