The bugs have brown or black wings, sometimes with a ring of red, orange, or yellow stripes on the edge. They’re usually ½- to 1-inch-long, about the size of a penny. They’re also called cone-nosed bugs, bloodsuckers, cinches, and triatomine bugs.
Like mosquitoes and ticks, kissing bugs need blood to live. They usually suck it from animals, including dogs, but sometimes they bite people. They hide during the day and come out at night to eat.