CALIFORNIA – No one needs to tell Jennifer Bankston how excruciatingly painful it is to be bitten by the "kissing bug," a bloodsucking parasite found throughout the southern half of the United States that carries Chagas, a sometimes inflammatory infectious disease. The mostly nocturnal parasite Trypanosoma cruzi has been found in 28 U.S. states, including California.

Bankston was sitting on her deck in Olney, Texas, in mid-June and didn't realize the insidious insect was lurking beneath until her legs began to itch. When she stood, she saw them between the cracks of the deck boards. The bugs hide in places like that, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Kissing bugs live up to their nasty reputation, according to Bankston, who told the San Angelo Standard-Times that she was bitten 11 times on one leg and 10 on the other. The horrific itch is beginning to go away, but it's been a miserable few weeks.

"The experience has been awful, and I really hope that others can be made aware of how bad these kissing bugs really are," Bankston told the newspaper. The itching persisted for several days and her feet began to swell. Her doctor gave her a steroid shot to control the swelling, antibiotics and a corticosteroid cream to apply to the bites. She told the Standard-Times she slathered calamine lotion on her legs and wrapped them in gauze so she could sleep — which provided "awesome" relief from the itching, she said.

Preliminary blood tests showed Bankston doesn't have Chagas, but she was waiting for the results of another lab work to confirm it. Chagas can be deadly for babies, people with immune deficiencies and puppies. "It's been so scary," Bankston said. "If I did have this (Chagas disease), the only way the doctor could get me medicine is through the CDC. It could not be gotten from the pharmacy.

"People need to get rid of those bugs. They may be called kissing bugs, but they are dangerous."

All that said, it's really not that easy to get Chagas from a triatomine bug, the CDC says.

Here's why: The parasite is found in the bug feces, and infection typically occurs when the bug defecates on or near a person while feeding on his or her blood, typically when someone is sleeping. The fecal material gets rubbed into the bite wound or into the eye or mouth, and that's how the parasite enters the body.

Also, the CDC said, not all triatomine bugs are infected with the Chagas-causing parasite.