Nature 193, 499 - 501 (03 February 1962); doi:10.1038/193499b0

Resistance to Dieldrin of Cimex hemipterus (Fabricius)

J. A. ARMSTRONG^*, W. R. BRANSBY-WILLIAMS & J. A. HUDDLESTON

Tropical Pesticides Research Institute, Arusha, Tanganyika.
^*Present address: Department of Biological Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

THE first report of resistance to dieldrin by the tropical bed-bug, Cimex hemipterus, in East Africa was that by Smith¹. In observations made during the course of the Pare-Taveta Malaria Control Scheme, it was reported² that the bed-bug population was reduced to very low numbers following the first dieldrin spray (first treatment of 80 mgm. dieldrin/sq. ft. followed by subsequent treatments of 40mgm./sq.ft. at eight-month intervals), but 14–19 months after this treatment the bed-bugs were present in sufficient numbers to be considered of nuisance value. In a series of laboratory tests it was shown that whereas bed-bugs from an untreated area were all dead after a seven-day exposure to 0.1 per cent dieldrin using a method suggested by Busvine³, there was only an 18 per cent mortality for a similar exposure time among bed-bugs from the treated area.

1. Smith, A. , Bull. World Health Org., 19, 1124 (1958).
2. Pare-Taveta Malaria Control Scheme (East Africa High Commission, 1960).
3. Busvine, J. R. , and Nash, R. , Bull. Ent. Res., 44, 371 (1953). | ISI | ChemPort |
4. van Tiel, N. (in the press).
5. Finney, D. J. , Probit Analysis, second ed. (Cambridge University Press, 1952).
6. Hoskins, W. M. , and Gordon, H. T. , Ann. Rev. Ent., 1, 89 (1956). | ISI | ChemPort |
7. Busvine, J. R. , Bull. World Health Org., 19, 1041 (1958). | ChemPort |