Apex Bait Technologies, Inc., 309 Laurelwood Road, #18-2, Santa Clara, CA 95054, USA.
Apex Bait Technologies, Inc., 309 Laurelwood Road, #18-2, Santa Clara, CA 95054, USA.
J Invertebr Pathol. 2018 Jan;151:1-6. doi: 10.1016/j.jip.2017.10.004. Epub 2017 Oct 24.
Due in part to the development of insecticide resistance, the common bed bug, Cimex lectularius, has overcome human intervention efforts to make a global resurgence. The failure of chemical pesticides has created a need for novel strategies to combat bed bugs. While a number of insect pests are susceptible to the use of entomopathogenic microbes or microbial-derived toxins, biological control methods have not been thoroughly explored in bed bugs. Here, we tested the virulence of three entomopathogenic bacterial species in C. lectularius to determine their potential for bed bug control. We examined bed bug survival after inoculation with live or heat-killed Serratia marcescens, Pseudomonas fluorescens, and Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis at varying temperatures. We also analyzed the viability and growth of the same bacteria in infected bed bugs. All three bacterial species were pathogenic to bed bugs. However, the effects of S. marcescens and P. fluorescens were temperature-dependent while the lethality of B. thuringiensis israelensis was not. In addition, bacterial virulence was partly dependent on the route of infection but was not strongly associated with proliferation. Thus, our results suggest multiple possible mechanisms of microbial pathogenicity in the bed bug and indicate that entomopathogenic bacteria, or products derived from them, may have useful applications for bed bug control.
部分由于杀虫剂抗性的发展，普通的臭虫（Cimex lectularius）已经克服了人类干预的努力，在全球范围内再次出现。化学农药的失败造成了对新型策略来对抗臭虫的需求。虽然许多昆虫害虫容易受到昆虫病原微生物或微生物衍生毒素的影响，但臭虫的生物防治方法尚未得到彻底探索。在这里，我们测试了三种昆虫病原细菌在臭虫中的毒力，以确定它们在控制臭虫方面的潜力。我们研究了在不同温度下用活的或热杀死的粘质沙雷氏菌、荧光假单胞菌和苏云金芽孢杆菌感染臭虫后，臭虫的存活情况。我们还分析了感染臭虫中相同细菌的活力和生长情况。所有三种细菌对臭虫都是致病的。然而，粘质沙雷氏菌和荧光假单胞菌的作用取决于温度，而苏云金芽孢杆菌以色列亚种的致死率则不受温度影响。此外，细菌的毒力部分取决于感染途径，但与增殖的相关性不强。因此，我们的结果表明微生物在臭虫中的致病性可能有多种可能的机制，并表明昆虫病原细菌或其衍生产品可能在控制臭虫方面有有用的应用。
