Guerin, Patrick

2013, Kröber, Thomas, Bourquin, Martine, Guerin, Patrick

The threat of transmission of Lyme borelliosis and tick-borne encephalitis by ixodid ticks has resulted in an increasing number of tick repellents coming onto the market. To allow proper evaluation of the efficacy of different types of compounds and their formulations, there is a need for standardised methods for testing ticks repellents. Ticks show a marked negative geotactic response following contact with a potential host, i.e., they climb up in order to locate attachment and feeding sites, whereas exposing ticks to repellents induces positive geotaxis, i.e., ticks walk downwards or drop off the treated host or substrate. We describe here complementary tests that employ these geotactic responses to evaluate repellents: one in vitro on a warm glass plate and the other on the lower human leg (shin). The compounds tested were DEET, EBAAP, icaridin, capric acid, lauric acid, geraniol, citriodiol, citronella essential oil and lavender essential oil, all non-proprietary ingredients of widely distributed tick repellent formulations.

In controls on both the warm glass plate and the human leg, the majority of Ixodes ricinus nymphs walk upwards. By contrast, in both the in vitro and in vivo tests, effective doses of repellents cause ticks to either walk downwards or fall off the substrates, termed here “affected ticks”. The ED75 values for affected ticks on the human leg indicate that the test products can be divided into three groups: (1) icaridin, EBAAP, DEET and capric acid with values between 0.013 and 0.020 mg/cm², (2) citriodiol and lauric acid with values between 0.035 and 0.058 mg/cm², and (3) geraniol, citronella oil and lavender essential oil with values between 0.131 and 1.58 mg/cm². The latter three products can be considered as less effective repellents. The tests on the warm glass plate resulted in very similar efficacy rankings for the products tested in vivo, and the ticks’ behavioural responses also corresponded closely to those observed on the treated human leg. The ED75 values on the glass plate ranged from half to one sixth needed on the leg. The warm glass plate test thus provides a reliable alternative to human subjects for an initial evaluation of new repellents, and is particularly appropriate for testing products with still to be determined human toxicity and dermatological effects.

2001, Grenacher, Stoyan, Kröber, Thomas, Guerin, Patrick, Vlimant, Michèle

Ticks are ectoparasites of vertebrates and utilize a variety ofinfochemicals for host finding and acceptance as well as for intraspecific aggregation and mating responses. Individual male and female Ixodes ricinus, the vector of Lyme disease in Europe, readily arrest onfilter paper strips contaminated with their own faeces. I. ricinus also responds, but to a lesser degree, tofaeces-contaminated papers enclosed in metal mesh envelopes, i.e. without directly contacting the faeces, suggesting a role for volatiles in the arrestment response. The faecal constituents guanine, xanthine, uric acid and 8-azaguanine (a bacterial breakdown product of guanine) also caused arrestment of individual I.ricinus males and females. However, mixtures of these products induced arrestment of I. ricinus at doses one hundred fold lower than the lowest active dose of any of them tested singly. Saline extracts of faeces activated receptor cells in terminal pore sensilla on the first legtarsi of I. ricinus. One cell in these sensilla responded in a similar dose dependent manner to guanine and 8-azaguanine, whereas a second cell was more sensitive to lower doses of 8-azaguanine. The response threshold approached 100 fM for both cells. These findings suggest that faeces and faecal breakdown products are implicated in aggregation responses of I. ricinus. This may account for the clumped distribution of this ectoparasite on the ground and contribute to the high proportion of mated individuals recorded prior to host colonization.