Abstract
The common bed bug Cimex lectularius L. (C. lectularius) is a hematophagous ectoparasite that has recently resurged in many western industrialized nations, in part due to pesticide resistance. Using a laboratory feeding system, we found that the antiparasitic drugs ivermectin and moxidectin did not show higher incapacitation rates in pyrethroid-resistant strains of C. lectularius compared to a pyrethroid-susceptible strain. Additionally, we developed a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and mass spectroscopy (MS) assay to measure the concentrations of ivermectin inside C. lectularius and found that ivermectin persists in the insects for up to one month. HPLC/MS will be useful in understanding the pathophysiology behind the long-term morbidity observed in C. lectularius that consumes a sublethal dose of ivermectin.
Highlights
The common bed bug Cimex lectularius L. (C. lectularius) is an obligate hematophagous insect that preferentially feeds on humans
The Harlan strain of C. lectularius has been maintained under laboratory conditions since the 1970s and is susceptible to the pesticides used in bed bug management including the pyrethroids
The median incapacitation rates of all strains on day 11 for bed bugs fed on 25 ng/mL moxidectin (16.3%, range: 8.5-22.2%) were significantly larger than the incapacitation rate of controls (4.1%, range: 0.0-10.2%, p: 0.016)
Summary
The common bed bug Cimex lectularius L. (C. lectularius) is an obligate hematophagous insect that preferentially feeds on humans. (C. lectularius) is an obligate hematophagous insect that preferentially feeds on humans. C. lectularius resistance to commonly used pesticides, the pyrethroid-class of pesticides, is contributing to the bed bug resurgence, and new approaches in controlling the insects are needed. The antiparasitic drugs ivermectin and moxidectin have limited human toxicity at therapeutic doses, and both have been shown to kill bed bugs that consume blood meals spiked with these drugs in a dose-dependent manner [4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. Because most C. lectularius in the US are pyrethroid-resistant, an objective of this study was to explore ivermectin and moxidectin toxicity in different C. lectularius strains including previously reported pyrethroid-resistant and pyrethroid-susceptible insects [11]
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