{"id":2427,"date":"2012-02-06T15:36:59","date_gmt":"2012-02-06T20:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/?page_id=2427"},"modified":"2020-04-09T15:22:15","modified_gmt":"2020-04-09T19:22:15","slug":"ambush-bugs-and-assassin-bugs","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/fact-sheets\/common-name-listing\/ambush-bugs-and-assassin-bugs\/","title":{"rendered":"Ambush Bugs and Assassin Bugs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><strong>Ambush bugs and assassin bugs<\/strong> are both in the family Reduviidae. <span style=\"font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\">Ambush bugs are technically a <em>type<\/em> of assassin bug. They are all chunky-bodied insects of angular form. Most species of both types are also carnivorous hunters of other insects (and occasionally spiders), and have a thickened front pair of legs used to grasp and hold on to their prey (very much akin to how a praying mantis uses its front legs), and they each have a short beak that projects from the front of the head<span style=\"font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\">. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"93\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2010\/09\/AmbushBug.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-93 \" src=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2010\/09\/AmbushBug-261x300.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of an Ambush Bug resting on some goldenrod flowers\" width=\"171\" height=\"197\" srcset=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2010\/09\/AmbushBug-261x300.jpg 261w, https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2010\/09\/AmbushBug-105x120.jpg 105w, https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2010\/09\/AmbushBug.jpg 305w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 171px) 100vw, 171px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Example of an Ambush Bug<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><strong>Ambush bugs<\/strong> are almost always found among flowers (as illustrated in the photo at left), where they lie in wait for passing flies, bees and wasps that visit. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"100\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2010\/09\/AssasinBug-MaskedHunter.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-100 \" src=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2010\/09\/AssasinBug-MaskedHunter-300x212.jpg\" alt=\"a type of Assasin Bug called a Masked Hunter\" width=\"259\" height=\"183\" srcset=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2010\/09\/AssasinBug-MaskedHunter-300x212.jpg 300w, https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2010\/09\/AssasinBug-MaskedHunter-105x74.jpg 105w, https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2010\/09\/AssasinBug-MaskedHunter-317x224.jpg 317w, https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2010\/09\/AssasinBug-MaskedHunter-423x299.jpg 423w, https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2010\/09\/AssasinBug-MaskedHunter.jpg 558w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 85vw, (max-width: 768px) 67vw, (max-width: 1024px) 62vw,259px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Masked Hunter<br \/>(type of assassin bug)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Some <strong>assassin bug<\/strong> groups specialize on certain kinds of prey, such as ants, termites, or millipedes.\u00a0 The <strong>Masked Hunter<\/strong>, <i>Reduvius personatus<\/i>, shown in the photo to the right is a type of assassin bug.\u00a0 Some blood-sucking species, particularly <em>Triaoma<\/em> spp. and other members of the subfamily Triatominae (e.g., <em>Paratriatoma hirsuta<\/em>), are also known as kissing bugs due to their habit of biting humans in their sleep on the soft tissue of the lips and eyes.\u00a0 Fortunately, kissing bugs are not found in our part of the world, but instead are mainly found in the Americas, with a few species present in Asia, Africa and Australia.<span style=\"font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Additional Information<\/strong><strong>:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.uky.edu\/Ag\/CritterFiles\/casefile\/insects\/bugs\/assassin\/assassin.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b>Ambush Bugs and Assassin Bugs<\/b><\/a><\/strong> (University of Kentucky) <strong>(includes photos)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/extension.umn.edu\/nuisance-insects\/masked-hunters\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b>Masked Hunter<\/b><\/a> <\/strong>(University of Minnesota)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ambush bugs and assassin bugs are both in the family Reduviidae. Ambush bugs are technically a type of assassin bug. They are all chunky-bodied insects of angular form. Most species of both types are also carnivorous hunters of other insects (and occasionally spiders), and have a thickened front pair of legs used to grasp and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"parent":1561,"menu_order":101,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2427","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ambush Bugs and Assassin Bugs - Home and Garden IPM from Cooperative Extension - University of Maine Cooperative Extension<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/fact-sheets\/common-name-listing\/ambush-bugs-and-assassin-bugs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ambush Bugs and Assassin Bugs - Home and Garden IPM from Cooperative Extension - University of Maine Cooperative Extension\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ambush bugs and assassin bugs are both in the family Reduviidae. 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