Advanced tools for bed bug pest management

臭虫是专为人类吸血的。近年来，包括加拿大和美国在内的许多国家的臭虫侵扰急剧增加，导致人们对设计更好的管理工具和控制方案重新产生兴趣。据加拿大卫生部称，现在从无家可归者收容所到五星级酒店，甚至在公共交通工具上都可以看到它们的身影。鉴于臭虫是最难根除的害虫之一，因为它们体积小，对常规杀虫剂表现出抗药性，而且易于运输，拟议研究的关键目标是促进开发管理臭虫的产品，臭虫是一种重新出现的公共卫生害虫，其基础是i.半化学物质——无毒行为改变物质，和ii.臭虫。天然产物，如硅藻土（DE）和植物杀虫剂。

Bed bugs are obligate blood feeders on humans. In recent years, bed bug infestations have increased dramatically in many countries including Canada and USA, leading to a renewed interest in designing better management tools and control options. According to Health Canada they can now be found everywhere from homeless shelters to five-star hotels, and even on public transportation. Given that bed bugs are among the most difficult pests to eradicate due to their small size, demonstrated resistance to conventional insecticides and their ease of transport, the key objective of the proposed research is to facilitate the development of products for management of bed bugs, a re-emerged public health pest, based on i. semiochemicals - non-toxic behaviour-modifying substances, and ii. natural products such as diatomaceous earth (DE) and botanical insecticides. The overall goals of this proposal are to develop an indoor pest management system against the common bed bug, Cimex lectularius based on: a. behavior-modifying synthetic pheromone analogs as repellents for personal protection and attractants for trapping and monitoring; b. synergistic effects of binary mixtures of repellents or attractants; c. enhanced DE for lethal effects against bed bugs; d. mixtures of DE and attractants = "attract and kill" strategy; e. mixtures of DE and pea extract/pea protein or other natural materials to increase the efficacy of DE. There are few non-toxic management tools available to mitigate bed bugs. Development of such tools would not only be beneficial to two young Vancouver companies (SemioBIO Technologies, DE Laboratories), but of potential socio-economic value globally as resurgence of this pest has occurred worldwide.