Human skin triglycerides prevent bed bug (Cimex lectularius L.) arrestment.

ABSTRACT: Bed bugs (Cimex lectularius) have proliferated globally and have become one of the most challenging pests to control indoors. They are nocturnal and use multiple sensory cues to detect and orient towards their human hosts. After feeding, usually on a sleeping human, they return to a shelter on or around the sleeping surface, but not directly on the host. We hypothesized that although human skin odors attract hungry bed bugs, human skin compounds may also prevent arrestment on hosts. We used arrestment assays to test human skin swabs, extracts from human skin swabs, and pure compounds identified from human skin swabs. When given a choice, bed bugs preferred to arrest on substrates not previously conditioned by humans. These responses were consistent among laboratory-reared and apartment-col

SUBMITTER: Gaire S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8654864 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature