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Funded Project |
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Funding Program:
IPM Enhancement Grants |
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Project Title:
Assessing the scope of an emerging threat: The insecticide resistant - bait averse German cockroach |
Project Directors (PDs):
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Lead State: NC Lead Organization: North Carolina State University |
| Undesignated Funding: $30,000 |
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Start Date: May-01-2013 End Date: Apr-30-2014 |
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Pests Involved: Blattella germanica |
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Site/Commodity: Urban - Structural |
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Area of Emphasis: Urban pest Management |
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Summary:
The German cockroach, Blattella germanica, is a significant pest within human-built structures throughout the southeastern U.S. and continues to be an important target of the pest control industry. This cockroach is a prime source of allergens that trigger asthma and other allergic reactions, a vector of human pathogens and a general nuisance thereby necessitating intervention by pest management professionals (PMPs). Currently, chemical insecticides are utilized in attempts to control German cockroach infestations, with baits increasingly becoming the favored formulation over the past 30 years. Baits are largely effective because they do not require precise targeting of locations harboring cockroaches and they readily deliver lethal doses of pesticides. Nearly 20 years ago the industry was alerted to failures in cockroach control with baits due to an unusual form of behavioral resistance now widely recognized as bait aversion. Bait aversion develops when initially a very small fraction of B. germanica within a population reject a component of the bait matrix. Over time, as non-bait averse individuals are eliminated, bait-averse individuals proliferate and represent most of the population. Physiological resistance, where the active ingredient loses its effectiveness as insecticide-susceptible cockroaches are eliminated, is much more common in various insects. Cockroach populations displaying both behavioral and physiological resistance are presumed very rare and have never been described behaviorally and physiologically. Yet, we have recently discovered B. germanica populations from apartments where baits became ineffective, which fit this dual resistance profile. These populations represent a serious emerging problem for the pest management industry whereby bait products, the mainstay of German cockroach control, are gradually rendered ineffective. Our overall project goal is to establish a profile of this dual-resistant cockroach, determine the scope of the problem and recommend possible alternative control measures. This project is related to the USDAs national integrated pest management (IPM) roadmap that calls for increasing the use of IPM systems to reduce potential human health risks and minimize adverse environmental effects from pest and related management strategies in residential and public areas. Specifically, we aim to conduct behavioral and physiological resistance studies with bait active ingredients (AIs) (hydramethylnon, fipronil, indoxacarb) and the sugars used as feeding stimulants in baits (glucose, fructose, sucrose), assessing AI x sugar interactions and their potential to accelerate bait product failures. We suggest that behavioral and physiological resistance traits are functionally linked, with bait averse individuals consuming sublethal doses of insecticide, thus facilitating slower absorption, and greater catabolism, sequestration and/or excretion of AI. We will test our hypothesis in 1) laboratory experiments with recently collected strains of B. germanica from apartments where bait products failed and 2) field collected strains provided by PMPs. We will also explore alternative control measures for this emerging pest variant.
Because the German cockroach is found throughout the United States, our project developed here, in North Carolina, will apply equally well to other regions of the southeastern U.S. Federal and local regulations have dictated the implementation of IPM programs in and around municipalities (offices, hospitals, schools, recreation areas). The initial phase of any IPM program requires assessing pest abundance and distribution. Thus, our efforts to determine the scope of the insecticide-resistant bait-averse cockroach threat will provide a key component necessary for establishing effective management programs. Objectives: The overall goal of this project is to characterize German cockroaches collected from accounts where baits have lost their effectiveness through a combination of bait aversion and insecticide resistance and thus alert the pest management industry to this emerging and potentially serious urban pest threat. We will address this goal at two scales that will address 1) the mechanisms underlying these two traits using two recently collected cockroach strains whose populations have increased despite treatments with professional bait products and 2) the prevalence and linkage of these two traits with PMP-provided field-collected cockroaches from locations throughout the southeastern United States where commercial baits have become ineffective. Specific Objectives: 1) Determine whether cockroaches surviving bait treatments are resistant to hydramethylnon, indoxacarb and fipronil using oral, topical and injection dose-mortality assays. 2) Determine whether these same cockroach populations demonstrate aversion to the sugars commonly incorporated within bait products; glucose, fructose, sucrose. 3) Determine if sugar aversion and insecticide resistance are linked (i.e. both traits expressed in same individual). 4) Determine the scope of physiological and behavioral resistance from PMP-provided field collections and compare these cockroaches to randomly collected strains. 5) Examine possible approaches to overcoming resistance-aversion bait performance issues. |
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Final Report: |
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Non-technical summary and Results We assessed various aspects of bait aversion and insecticide resistance in twenty-six field-collected German cockroaches strains. We performed 1) whole bait performance assays, topical dose-mortality assays with technical insecticide and glucose aversion assays. We did not have enough insects to perform all three assays for all strains. We found that, in whole bait assays, 10 out of 12 strains survived significantly longer than our laboratory strain. In topical assays we found three strains resistant to the bait active ingredients hydramethylnon and fipronil and extremely resistant to indoxacarb - it required over 300x more indoxacarb to kill two of these strains than the dose required to kill our laboratory susceptible strain. Our glucose aversion assays revealed nine strains that contained individuals that rejected glucose. We also found a few field populations that contained both glucose-averse and insecticide-resistant individuals. Our studies confirmed our suspicions that bait-averse/insecticide resistant cockroaches may be fairly widespread. |
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Target audience Our target audiences are professional pest control operators, research and extension personal, manufacturers of professional and consumer insecticide products and the general public. |
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Goals / Objectives Our project objectives were: 1)to determine whether cockroaches surviving bait treatments were resistant to hydramethylnon, indoxacarb and fipronil. 2)to determine whether these same cockroach populations demonstrate aversion to the sugars commonly incorporated within bait products; glucose, fructose, sucrose. 3)to determine if sugar aversion and insecticide resistance are linked (i.e. both traits expressed in same individual). 4)to determine the scope of physiological and behavioral resistance from PMP-provided field collections and compare these cockroaches to randomly collected strains. 5) to Examine possible approaches to overcoming resistance-aversion bait performance issues. We were able to confirm, as indicated in the summary, that bait-averse/insecticide resistant cockroaches were widespread. Resistance to hydramethylnon, fipronil and indoxacarb was found in several populations. We found glucose aversion in several populations but were not able to assay for sucrose and fructose aversion during this project period. We assayed individuals for linkage between hydramethylnon resistance and glucose aversion, and the traits appeared to assort independently. We did not have time during the project period to examine approaches to overcoming resistance-aversion issues. |
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Activities / Events N/A |
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Outcomes We provide evidence that resistance and/or aversion is present in many field cockroach populations. |
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Impacts Our work impacts directly on the urban pest control community, alerting them to possible widespread failures of cockroach baits. |
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Publications N/A We plan to publish our work within the next 12 months. |
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Other Products / Outputs N/A We plant o present our results at entomology conferences within the next 12 months. |
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Leveraged Funds N/A |
| Report Appendices |
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