Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Bed bugs (Cimex lectularius L.; Hemiptera: Cimicidae) have re-emerged as important public health pests in the past decade, with increasing intensity of urban infestations in Canada, the USA, Western Europe and Australia. The exact cause of this resurgence is unclear, but may be a consequence in part owing to the development of resistance in bed bugs to commonly used domestic insecticides. Bed bugs are obligate blood feeders on humans. Bed bug infestations often require expensive ongoing inspections and treatments, disposal and replacement of infested beds and other furnishings and quarantine of infested areas. They have an especially negative impact on the hospitality industry. There is an urgent need to develop pest management tools that are not only effective, but that do not themselves have undue negative impacts on human health. The overall goals of this project are to develop: 1. formulations of repellents and of attractants that modify bed bug behaviour; and 2. an indoor pest management system based on repellents and attractants. Our previous collaboration with SemiosBio Technologies, supported through an NSERC Engage grant, allowed us to develop reliable laboratory bioassays using field-collected bed bugs that facilitated the selection of a number of potent repellents and attractants from a large library of synthetic pheromone analogs. The purpose of the proposed research is to characterize the bioactivity of the best of these substances. We will investigate differences in sensitivity between bed bug life stages and sexes, the importance of the insect's antennae in perception of these semiochemicals, potential toxicity of these substances to bed bugs, and the ability of bed bugs to habituate to these chemical signals. In the final phase of the proposed project we will evalute slow-release formulations of repellents and attractants through analyses of headspace volatiles emitted over time with parallel bed bug response bioassays. This will allow us to determine the required airborne concentrations for effective pest management and to assess the utility of these semiochemicals for bed bug managment.