Papers

Outbreaks of vector borne diseases represent a major challenge for preparedness and response to infectious diseases. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control supports the investigation of outbreaks of infectious diseases detected within the European Union/Economic European Area and ...

The development of an efficient and timely surveillance with accurate alert signals is among the bottlenecks of arboviruses epidemiology. Herein, we report the steps taken to transform an archaic and sectorized structure into a modern and timely surveillance program under the One Health approach ...

Extreme climatic events, environmental degradation, unplanned urbanization and socio-economic inequalities exacerbate the risk of infectious disease emergence, spread and transmission. Mosquito-borne diseases, such as dengue and malaria, are highly sensitive to climate variability and climate cha...

Dominant approaches to the management of urban rats have focused on identifying and treating infestations at the level of an individual building or parcel of land. Even the most up to date Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approaches do not often account for the spatial scale and dynamics of rat p...

Outdoor areas were monitored for two pestiferous species of yellowjackets, Vespula alascensis Packard and Vespula pensylvanica Saussure (Hymenoptera: Vespidae), in southern and northern California. Heptyl butyrate attracted V. acadica (Sladen), V. alascensis, V. atropilosa (Sladen), and V. pensyl...

The World Health Organization will launch a Global Arbovirus Initiative soon. This Initiative focuses on Aedes-borne arboviral diseases and aims to strengthen the coordination, communication, capacity-building, and preparedness/response necessary to mitigate the growing risk of epidemics due to a...

In the Netherlands, besides the detection at Lucky bamboo and used tire sites, introductions of Aedes albopictus have been notified by citizens since 2016 in urban areas. Intensive surveillance and mosquito control followed the confirmation of the species identity in the laboratory. In many cases...

The clerids Korynetes caeruleus (Coleoptera: Cleridae) and Opilo domesticus (Coleoptera: Cleridae) naturally occur in buildings where they feed on the wood pest Anobium punctatum (Coleoptera, Ptinidea). Another prey of K. caeruleus in buildings is the wood-destroying insect Xestobium rufovillosum...

Larvae and adults of Korynetes caeruleus (de Geer 1775) (Coleoptera: Cleridae) were collected from old churches and reared in the laboratory on Anobium punctatum (de Geer 1774) (Coleoptera, Ptinidea, formerly Anobiidae). Breeding success of K. caeruleus was low, but basic parameters of this speci...

The efficacy of YJX-100 yellowjacket baiting system to control individual nests and to provide area-wide suppression of European wasps Vespula germanica was evaluated. The study was conducted in a disturbed urban tall grass habitat in Canberra, Australia in 2017. Six active European wasp nests we...

Yamanashi Prefecture, an inland climate mountain area of Japan, extends widely north and south, with altitude that varies greatly by location. Mosquitoes transmitting infectious disease have a diversity of habitats in Yamanashi, and many species can be expected there. However, there have been few...

For nearly a decade, the wood pest Anobium punctatum has been effectively controlled in historic monuments with its natural antagonist Spathius exarator. This braconid wasp parasitizes its host species by piercing its ovipositor directly through the wood surface followed by oviposition onto the b...

The yellow-legged hornet (Vespa velutina) is a social Hymenoptera native from Asia and an invasive species in Europe where was first detected in France in 2004 and have spread across the continent reaching peninsular Spain in 2010 and Mallorca island in 2015. Its predatory habits on a broad diver...

Urban areas provide suitable breeding areas for mosquitoes potentially affecting the epidemiology of many vector-borne diseases, through its effects on mosquito community composition. The invasive Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus has colonized a large number of urbanized areas in Europe and ...

In Europe softwood is usually used for packaging materials. Wood is an ideal material for boxes whose size is adapted to large machine parts that are to be shipped by sea. But it can be infested by wood destroying quarantine species. To exclude infestation by green wood feeding insects, the wood ...

The yellow-legged hornet, Vespa velutina nigrithorax, is an Invasive Alien Species (IAS) accidentally introduced in Europe from South East Asia. It was reported for the first time in south-west France in 2004 and rapidly spread to nearby European countries: Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, German...

At the end of April 2018, a pest control company brought three termite soldiers and some alates to the Urban Pest Advisory Service (UPAS) for species determination. They were found in a building in a medium-sized city on Lake Zurich (Canton Zurich). A mitochondrial DNA analysis by the University ...

Proactive monitoring is consistently being recommended as a method of rapid bed bug detection in multi-unit housing. The purpose of this study was to compare the cost and maintenance time required to implement either a passive or electronic bed bug monitoring system in multi-unit facilities. Whil...

The asian hornet is an exotic invasive species according to the law 33/2015 of Natural Heritage and Biodiversity, in the Iberian Peninsula. The first appointment of this insect occurs in 2010, in the Foral community of Navarra. Since its introduction, it has been colonizing a large part of the no...

By surpassing the 50% inheritance limit of Mendel’s law of gene segregation, CRISPR-based gene drives have the potential to fight urban vector-borne diseases or suppress urban pests, but contemporary gene drives can spread unchecked and lack an analog output that modulates inheritance between 50–...

For more than 20 years various invasive ant species cause tremendous problems in Central Europe. The Tapinoma nigerrimum complex (Formicidae, Dolichoderinae) was first detected in 2007 in nursery plants. Further discoveries followed in the following years. Because of their species-specific proper...

Insecticidal baits are proven effective tactics for domestic cockroach species, but limited information about their use and efficacy exist for outdoor applications targeting peridomestic species. We evaluated three commercial bait products against large populations of Turkestan cockroaches at two...

Lateral flow strip tests are a cost-effective method for detecting specific proteins in biological samples, which can be performed in the field without specialized expertise. While most recognizable in the pregnancy tests, there are many other applications for lateral flow strip technology. The p...

Tapinoma magnum (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) is an ant of Mediterranean origin that is considered an invasive species in central and northern Europe. It is now present in Switzerland, where it was first observed in the canton of Vaud in 2012. Tapinoma magnum colonizes urban and suburban zones, inclu...

Insecticidal baits are one of the most popular tools for controlling cockroaches. They rely on precise label dosage guidelines to achieve control for a varied number of cockroach species. Periplaneta americana can consume high quantities of bait before being incapacitated. This has the potential ...

This study reviews the bed bug management programme in place across a sample of >500 hotels in the United Kingdom, just prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. In these hotels, regular bed bug detection was carried out by housekeepers, while a professional canine bed bug detection team was used to ins...

In Switzerland Tapinoma magnum, an invasive ant species in northern and central Europe, was first observed in the canton of Vaud in 2012 and 2018 found in the cantons of Geneva and Zurich. In the spring of 2019, the Urban Pest Advisory Service collected ants from the front yard of a residential e...

Combinations of bait and spray were tested against susceptible and field-collected German cockroaches, Blattella germanica. In exposure tests, residual deposits of all sprays were lethal to a susceptible strain, but pyrethrin and certain pyrethroid sprays were repellent in choice boxes. Indoxacar...

Bed bugs were evaluated in the laboratory to determine the effects of varying feeding regimens and environmental conditions on their susceptibility to two commercial products containing chlorfenapyr, Phantom® II Aerosol and Phantom® SC Insecticide. In the first study, bed bugs were reared under f...

Insecticide resistance in the German cockroach, Blattella germanica (L.), is a significant challenge affecting pest management professionals worldwide. The use of gel baits against German cockroaches has become a popular option in Asia. However, recently, there were anecdotal reports that the fie...

Bed bug infestations are most likely to establish close to human resting and sleeping area. We took advantage of the stereotyped feeding behaviour of bed bugs and developed a diatomaceous earth (DE) loaded tape, Nattaro Safe (NS), to be installed between bed bug harbourage and feeding place. DE a...

Two new technologies (spray with a pheromone adjuvant + biodegradable hydrogel bait delivery method) were used to develop a unique IPM protocol for Argentine ant at urban structural settings. The IPM protocol included a one-time perimeter treatment with 0.03% fipronil (mixed with a pheromone adju...

The first step in every integrated pest management strategy is to inspect and identify the target pest. Most people distinguish between ants, cockroaches, mosquitoes and other pests, but lack a basic knowledge of their characteristics. It happens a lot that people are bitten or stung in their hom...

Assessing physical barrier on the basis of a laboratory test is an important step on the product development, as those barriers have to remain efficient towards subterranean termites as long as the building is in service. This becomes more challenging when the anti-termite barrier has to resist a...

The Exploreum Science Center and History Museum in Mobile, Alabama, USA, and UNESCO World Heritage Site Taliesin West – Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter residence and architectural school in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA, are both complex structures that were experiencing substantial termite activity. A ‘s...

In London, most local authorities provide pest control services to their residents. However, the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020-21 triggered national ‘lock-downs’, requiring organisations to change their working practices. Pest control managers in selected boroughs were interviewed to assess the impac...

The greenhouse millipede Oxidus gracilis (Koch), originally native to East Asia, has so far only been found in Central Europe as an introduced species in greenhouses and botanical gardens. In the last few years, however, there has been increasing evidence in Western Austria and Switzerland that t...

We tested a new SentriTech formulation of refined cellulose bait matrix containing hexaflumuron 0.5% to eliminate Reticulitermes grassei and Reticulitermes banyulensis, using 3-month monitoring and bait-replenishment interval, during 4 years in 40 sites in Spain, and compared the results against ...

This research began on December 2018 and ended December 2019, in which the monitoring and weekly review of 4 populations of Cadra cautella was conducted. This moth is able to feed from a wide range of different substrates, two sorts of substrate were designed: one based on raw food and the other ...

Pest identification and monitoring are essential components in an IPM program. In industrial food manufacturing facilities, pest management professionals monitor insect numbers with glue traps using UV- attraction or sex pheromone. Each trap will be collected and closely examined to identify and ...

The objective of this work is to use a virtual disease vector at the scale of the European continent for the empirical testing of the number of spatial sampling points that are needed to develop stable spatial models to reliably map the distribution of disease pests: How many sampling points shou...

This study aimed to assess the records and experience of Integrated Pest Control and Management
Companies in Colombia and Spain to contribute to the epidemiological knowledge of bed bug infestations in both countries. To accomplish this objective, a confidential 27-question questionnaire, d...

The DDT, deltamethrin, and malathion susceptibilities of five tropical bed bug (Cimex hemipterus) strains, and their resistance mechanisms were investigated using synergism studies and detection of kdr mutations. All C. hemipterus strains showed high resistance to DDT and deltamethrin and moderat...

In the recent years, different types of sensors have been developed for the automatic categorization of mosquitoes. Most of them have been only tested in laboratory conditions so there is a lack of studies in the field. In this study, a new sensor prototype linked to a mosquito trap was tested in...

This is the first reported study on efficacy of aerial ultra-low volume (ULV) application of an adulticide using a small Unmanned Aerial System (sUAS) in the United States. Imperium™ Insecticide (Bayer CropScience LP), containing the active ingredient (AI) deltamethrin, is the only Type II pyreth...

The mosquito species Aedes albopictus (Skuse, 1895) has spread rapidly in Europe over the last 40 years and has been established as an invasive species in Germany for the last 15 years. In 2019, individual specimens were found for the first time in the allotments “SÜD I”, “SÜD II” and the adjacen...

Nuisances caused by mosquito biting affect the tourism sector, particularly during high season in Mediterranean locations. One species present in these locations is Aedes mariae , which breeds in rock-pool coastal zones. There is a lack of information available about the ecology of Ae. mariae. Th...

According to the One Health concept, human and animal health are interdependent and connected with the environment in which they coexist. In this context, leishmaniasis is a zoonotic disease that affects humans as well as various wild and domestic mammals. The persistence of the disease in cities...

House mice (Mus musculus) like other rodents emit ultrasonic vocalisations (USVs) as a form of communication; their call types are diverse and form a vital role in their everyday lives. In January 2019 wild strain mice housed within a mixed pen environment showed an observed shift in the length, ...

A field trial on a typical market-leading rat snap trap for the control of a Brown rat, Rattus norvegicus, infestation was undertaken. The purpose of the trial was to assess the efficacy of the trap in a rural rat infestation and record observations regarding humaneness. The initial infestation w...

Spiders which arrive with fruits from other continents are a challenge for pest management and for super markets in Central Europe. A survey is presented on spiders which were sent to the author for identification beginning 2012 through to 2019. All specimens arrived from supermarkets. 37 specime...

A rodent infestation in a food manufacturing, distribution or retail facility threatens both the integrity and safety of the food supply. The consequences of a rodent infestation in food manufacturing facilities can include failing audits, regulatory fines, product recalls and - in extreme cases ...

One of the major groups of mosquito-borne diseases is Flaviviruses with prominent human pathogens, such as West Nile virus (WNV), dengue, Zika viruses. Nowadays, WNV is appearing more and more in several countries, thanks in part to climate change and other factors. WNV is endemic in parts of Eur...

Considering the ability of arthropods, to act as vectors of pathogens, an understanding of bacterial species associated with household arthropods and hence their significance to public health is also limited. This study aimed to investigate household arthropods in the United Kingdom, exploring th...

Alternatives to anticoagulants have presented limitations in their use and/or efficacy. BASF have developed a non-anticoagulant rodenticide bait containing cholecalciferol (vitamin D3). A beneficial feature of cholecalciferol is that it is effective against all anticoagulant resistant strains of ...

Pest control strategies would become more effective if semiochemicals (volatile organic signalling compounds) instead of foods were used as lures and bait additives. This is because (1) they can be encapsulated into non-perishable lure products that emit a sustained odour for extended time period...

In order to bring a new insecticide product to market in Europe there is a requirement to register it under the Biocidal Products Regulations (PT 18). One part of the process in granting a registration requires the submission and acceptance of a dossier that includes evidence demonstrating the ef...

Simulium erythrocephalum (De Geer, 1776) is an arthropod of great medical-sanitary importance due to its
haematophagic way of feeding. The adults of this dipterans, which exhibit a marked anthropophilic behaviour, tends to emerge simultaneously, then usually producing massive attacks. In Sp...

Resistance to insecticides is one of the multiple factors related to sudden bed bug reemergence. In this work, we evaluated synthetic repellents and the attractant role of cuticular compounds as potential alternatives to conventional strategies used in pest control management. On the one hand, we...

The diversity and abundance of different blood-sucking insects was studied in the three main cities of the Basque Country region (northern Spain). Sampling took place in one green area and one cemetery from each city, where two CDC-light traps baited with CO2 were placed fortnightly from May to O...

Bed bug (Cimex lectularius) monitors are effective tools in detecting early infestations and evaluating the results of control programs. Among the monitors, bed bug sticky monitors are not toxic and easy to use. But we observed that that bed bugs were repelled by the contact between the sticky fi...

Hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP) is usually caused by the inhalation of avian and fungal proteins. The present study assesses a cohort of Urban Pest Surveillance and Control Service (UPSCS) workers with high exposure to avian and fungal antigens, in order to identify their degree of sensitizatio...

Silverfish (Lepisma saccarinum) are described as a pest to museum and paper objects and mainly occur in damp and humid conditions. They can damage paper, starchy materials, wall paper, but in some cases also insect collections and textiles. The firebrat (Thermobia domesticum) is also described in...

An increment in human tick bite cases has been noticed in Eastern Spain in the last years. Three tick species has been detached from patients assisted at Vall d’Alba Heath Center during 2018 and 2019: Dermacentor marginatus, Hyalomma lusitanicum and Rhipicephalus sanguineus. H. lusitanicum, with ...

Traps need to be highly attractive to the bed bug, Cimex lectularius, to catch them at low population numbers. Typically, traps are manufactured in plastic or cardboard and have an aggregation pheromone incorporated into the design for attraction. Yet, the material of the trap will also influence...

Suspend PolyZone is an insecticide with a unique formulation that contains a proprietary polymer that allows it to protect the active ingredient from weather, water runoff, and mechanical abrasion. This allows the product to leave behind residues that stay where they are applied and remain active...

Optimizing the efforts required for countermeasures against animal damage is an important issue in wildlife
management. In Tokyo, the increase in the abundance of crows has led to many complaints from residents. As a result, in 2001, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government implemented a crow cont...

The increasing prevalence of the nuisance pest Ctenolepisma longicaudata has demanded an assessment of the tools for control and elimination that are available to the pest control industry. A single application of a commercially available cockroach bait containing 1% Clothianidin at a dose rate o...

This study aimed to phenotypically characterize ticks from human bites in La Rioja and canine bites in the province of Valencia, Spain. Phenotyping was performed using a computerized image analysis system (CIAS, Computer picture Analysis System). The analysis by means of principal components of t...

Cimex hemipterus is spreading to areas where only C. lectularius have been historically observed, such as the Middle East, North Australia, but also temperate regions like Russia. In Europe, until now mostly episodic observations of the species were known. We collected material from around 600 be...

Aedes albopictus was firsT reported in Valencia (Eastern Spain) in 2015. Once its establishment was confirmed, several mosquito management actions were applied in order to minimize its impact, including routinely larvicide treatments in public city catch basins, attendance of citizen complaints l...

Invasive mosquitoes’ distribution has increased in recent decades throughout Europe. In 2014 Aedes albopictus was identified for the first time in the Basque Country (northern Spain) and in 2020 Aedes japonicus was detected in the three Basque provinces. This study aimed to evaluate the associati...

Urban Pest Management Programs demand spatial information. Madrid City Council has been incorporating
Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for the last three decades. As a result, Health Madrid’s Vector Control Department (DCV) has improved urban pest management notably. Systematic rat co...

Anticoagulant rodenticides are the most commonly used pesticides worldwide that inhibit blood coagulation by
suppressing the activity of the vitamin K epoxide reductase (VKOR). Resistance to these compounds has been reported in multiple rodent populations in different countries, and numerou...

Larvae and adults of Korynetes caeruleus (de Geer 1775) (Coleoptera: Cleridae) were collected from old churches and reared in the laboratory on Anobium punctatum (de Geer 1774) (Coleoptera, Ptinidea, formerly Anobiidae). Breeding success of K. caeruleus was low, but basic parameters of this speci...

The house centipede (Scutigera coleoptrata) is a thermophilic species mainly distributed in the Mediterranean region. This nocturnal predator kills its pray with toxic bites. As early as shortly after the last Ice Age it has settled in the “Kaiserstuhl”, one of the warmest regions in Germany. Pro...