Abstract
APART from the improvement of housing standards as circumstances permit, the control of Chagas's disease throughout its range in South and Central America depends on control of the vectors (domestic triatomine bugs) by periodic indoor application of residual insecticide, usually HCH. Bug infestation in the low standard dwellings which are characteristic of urban and rural foci of the disease is usually discovered by daytime search for bugs in the cracks and crevices of walls and other indoor surfaces where the insects hide during the day. Pyrethrum powder is often blown into such fissures to irritate the bugs and cause them to emerge1, and some workers also sample by attaching perforated boxes containing crumpled paper to walls, when the chance lodgment of bugs in the boxes may indicate infestation2. The economic management of vector control requires more reliable and less time-consuming sampling methods3 and there is also a need for better quantitative data on bug densities in relation to clinical and epidemiological aspects of the disease.
Similar content being viewed by others
Article PDF
References
Cançado, R. (ed.), Doenca de Chagas (Fed. Univ. Minas Gerais State, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 1968).
Gómez Núñez, J. C., Acta Cient. Venez., 16, 26 (1965).
World Health Org. Tech. Rep. Ser., No. 443 (1970).
Correa, R. R., Revta. Bras. Malar. Doenc. Trop., 20, 39 (1968).
Wood, S. F., and Wood, F. D., J. Econ. Entomol., 57, 775 (1965).
Ventocilla, J. A., and Silva, P., Revta. Bras. Malar. Doenc. Trop., 20, 161 (1968).
Sjogren, R. D., and Ryckman, R. E., J. Med. Entamol., 3, 81 (1966).
Bertram, D. S., Varma, M. G. R., Page, R. C., and Heathcote, O. H. U., J. Med. Entomol., 7, 267 (1970).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
BERTRAM, D. Attraction of Triatomine Bug Vectors of Chagas's Disease to Betalights. Nature 231, 268 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1038/231268a0
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/231268a0
This article is cited by
-
Spectral sensitivity of the photonegative reaction of the blood-sucking bug Triatoma infestans (Heteroptera: Reduviidae)
Journal of Comparative Physiology A (2006)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.