Published in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
There is an ongoing need for safe and effective anti-bedbug compounds. Here, we tested the toxicity of three antimicrobial agents against bedbugs when administered orally. We reveal that doxycycline has direct insecticidal activity at 250 μg/ml (0.025%) that is particularly strong against immature bedbugs and appears to be independent of antimicrob...
Published in IDCases
Body lice and bed bugs are hematophagous insects that parasitize humans. Body lice are established vectors of several bacterial pathogens (e.g. Bartonella quintana, Borrelia recurrentis ). Bed bugs are biologically competent vectors of some of the same agents, but their vectorial capacity for these in nature is unclear. In particular, a lack of exp...
Published in New Microbes and New Infections
Bed bugs are now one of the most prevalent human-associated, blood-feeding pests in the urban world, but few studies of their association with human pathogens have been conducted since their resurgence. Here, we used PCR to screen samples of field-collected bed bugs ( Cimex spp.) for the presence of Rickettsia bacteria and we describe the first det...
Published in Cytometry. Part A : the journal of the International Society for Analytical Cytology
Genome size and chromosome number of five Cimicidae species were compared with the similar data recently received from Cimex lectularius parasitizing human. The average nuclear DNA content (males) was 2C = 1.47 pg in C. hemipterus, 2C = 1.61 pg in C. hirundinis, 2C = 1.80 pg in C. lectularius from bats, 2C = 1.68 pg in C. pipistrelli, and 2C = 1.22...
Published in Journal of medical entomology
Bat bugs (Cimex adjunctus Barber) (Hemiptera: Cimicidae) collected from big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus Palisot de Beauvoir) in Colorado, United States were assessed for the presence of Bartonella, Brucella, and Yersinia spp. using molecular techniques. No evidence of Brucella or Yersinia infection was found in the 55 specimens collected; however,...
The mechanical properties of bed bug (Cimex lectularius L.) tarsi and pretarsi were investigated in order to evaluate their vulnerability to piercing by plant trichomes (sharp microscopic hairs). Nanoindentation was used to measure the force required to insert a sharp probe into the cuticle of these different regions, as well as to determine creep ...
La punaise de lit est un ectoparasite hématophage de la famille des cimicidés, cet insecte furtif se nourrit au dépend de l’homme en le parasitant pendant son sommeil. Le terme punaise de lit englobe deux espèces: Cimex lectularius vivant dans des régions tempérées et Cimex hemipterusqui est une espèce tropicale. D’autres espèces peuvent piquer exc...
Published in Journal of economic entomology
Resistance to insecticides, especially the pyrethroids, in the common bed bug, Cimex lectularius L., has been well-documented. However, the presence and relative contribution of metabolic detoxifying microsomal oxidases and hydrolytic esterases to the observed resistance has yet to be fully elucidated. This is due, in part, to the absence of a simp...
Cette étude analyse le comportement de recherche de l’hôte chez la punaise de lit, Cimex lectularius, en portant une attention particulière sur les stimuli émis par l’Homme et impliqués dans ce processus d’orientation. Elle met également en évidence les applications possibles en matière de lutte intégrée. La punaise de lit est un ectoparasite exclu...
