Abstract
ActiveGuard™ Mattress Liners have been used to control house dust mites, and they also are commercially available as an integrated pest management tool for use against bed bugs (Cimex lectularius). The aim of our study was to evaluate responses of numerous populations of the bed bug to the permethrin-impregnated fabric, with particular regard to contact toxicity, repellency, and feeding inhibition. Continuous exposure to ActiveGuard fabric resulted in rapid intoxication for three of four populations, with 87 to 100% of moderately pyrethroid-resistant and susceptible bed bugs succumbing by 1 d. In comparison, a highly resistant population reached 22% mortality at 10 d. Video data revealed that bed bugs readily traversed ActiveGuard fabric and spent a considerable amount of time moving about and resting on it during a 12-h period. ActiveGuard fabric was non-repellent to bed bugs from five tested populations. Furthermore, significantly fewer bed bugs successfully fed to repletion through ActiveGuard fabric than through blank fabric for the five populations. With just 30 min of feeding exposure, mortality ranged from 4% to 83%, depending upon the bed bug strain. These laboratory studies indicate that ActiveGuard liners adversely affected bed bugs from diverse populations.
Highlights
Insecticide efficacy can be greatly influenced by the behavioral response of the target pest
Continuous contact with ActiveGuard fabric resulted in rapid intoxication of bed bugs from three of four tested populations, with 100% of Harlan, 93% of EPM, and 87% of Earl bed bugs succumbing by 1 d (Figure 1) and no significant differences evident by day 3 based on means separation tests
The highly resistant population, Marcia, exhibited delayed mortality; some moribund and dead bed bugs were first observed at 6 d, with mortality subsequently increasing to 22% at 10 d (Figure 1)
Summary
Insecticide efficacy can be greatly influenced by the behavioral response of the target pest. Sometime referred to as contact irritants, require the insect to physically contact a chemical residue before making oriented movement away; these chemicals typically have low vapor pressure. With vapor (olfactory, spatial) repellents, the insect orients its movement away from the chemical residue without having physically contacted it; such chemicals typically have a high vapor pressure [1±3]. Moore and Miller [4] provided the first insights into the non-repellency of formulated insecticides for bed bugs. They observed that bugs readily rested on panels treated with various pyrethroids: permethrin (Dragnet SFR), lambda-cyhalothrin (Demand CS), deltamethrin (Suspend SC), and bifenthrin (Talstar One), as well as a chlorinated pyrrole (chlorfenapyr [Phantom])
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