Incorportating an essential-oil based biopesticide to mitigate pyrethroid resistance in bed bugs

The common bed bug has rapidly resurged throughout the world during the past 15 years. In the U.S., bed bug outbreaks are reported from every state and territory. Bed bug control efforts prove to be temporarily effective, but complete eradication is extremely difficult. Insecticides are convenient, fast acting and inexpensive. Therefore, pest management companies and residents depend heavily on insecticides to control bed bugs. Unfortunately, recent research provides strong evidence that bed bug populations have developed resistance to many commonly used synthetic insecticides such as pyrethroids and neonicotinoids. To reduce the use of synthetic insecticides and enhance control efficiency, alternative sustainable bed bug management tactics are required. Biopesticides, such as essential oil-based products are promising candidates for bed bug IPM practice. One biopesticide, EcoRaider with active ingredient extracted from plants was recently identified as the highest effective biopesticide in killing bed bugs to date. In this study, we evaluated the efficiency of EcoRaider on susceptible and field collected pyrethroid resistant bed bug populations. Our results exhibit that the topical application of EcoRaider caused 90% mortality in highly resistant bed bug populations. While the residual application of this biopesticide led to 100% mortality in some field collected resistant populations. The effectiveness of this product may due to its optimal penetration capability through the lipid integument layer of bed bugs and its synergistic effect on metabolic enzymes that contribute to the pyrethroid resistance. Our study suggested the biopesticides would potentially serve as great alternatives to mitigate pyrethroid resistance in bed bugs.