Luker Hailey A, Rodriguez Stacy, Kandel Yashoda, Vulcan Julia, Hansen Immo A
Department of Biology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, United States of America.
PeerJ. 2021 Apr 21;9:e11138. doi: 10.7717/peerj.11138. eCollection 2021.
Ticks are important vectors of human and veterinary diseases. A primary way ticks gain access to human hosts is by engaging to clothing. Repellents or acaricides sprayed onto fabric are used to deter ticks' access to human hosts. However, there are a limited amount of standardized laboratory assays that can determine the potency and efficacy of repellents. We present a novel fabric-engagement assay referred to as the 'Tick Carousel Assay'. This assay utilizes fabric brushing past ticks located on an artificial grass patch and measures tick engagements to fabric over time. After screening a variety of tick species, we used the lone star tick ) to test the efficacy of four commonly used active ingredients in repellents: DEET, Picaridin, IR3535, and Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus. Repellency was tested immediately, after three hours, and six hours post application to fabric. Our data show that each repellent we tested significantly reduced the number of tick engagements to fabric for at least 6 hours. We did not find significant differences in repellent efficacy between the four active ingredients tested directly and three hours after application. After six hours, Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus repelled ticks more than the other active ingredients. We show that our Tick Carousel Assay provides an affordable, repeatable, and standardized way to compare and test repellent efficacy on treated fabrics. Our results confirm that commonly used repellents applied to fabric are an effective way to reduce tick engagement.
蜱虫是人类和兽医疾病的重要传播媒介。蜱虫接触人类宿主的主要方式是附着在衣物上。喷洒在织物上的驱虫剂或杀螨剂用于阻止蜱虫接近人类宿主。然而，能够确定驱虫剂效力和功效的标准化实验室检测方法数量有限。我们提出了一种新的织物接触检测方法，称为“蜱虫旋转木马检测法”。该检测方法利用织物刷过放置在人工草皮上的蜱虫，并测量蜱虫随时间与织物的接触情况。在筛选了多种蜱虫种类后，我们使用孤星蜱来测试驱虫剂中四种常用活性成分的功效：避蚊胺、派卡瑞丁、IR3535和柠檬桉叶油。在将驱虫剂应用于织物后立即、三小时后和六小时后测试其驱避效果。我们的数据表明，我们测试的每种驱虫剂在至少6小时内都显著减少了蜱虫与织物的接触次数。我们发现，直接应用后和三小时后测试的四种活性成分之间的驱虫效果没有显著差异。六小时后，柠檬桉叶油比其他活性成分更能驱避蜱虫。我们表明，我们的蜱虫旋转木马检测法提供了一种经济实惠、可重复且标准化的方法，用于比较和测试处理过的织物上的驱虫效果。我们的结果证实，应用于织物的常用驱虫剂是减少蜱虫接触的有效方法。
