Volatile Organic Compounds: A Promising Tool for Bed Bug Detection

Mohammad Akhoundi (), Dahlia Chebbah, Nohal Elissa, Sophie Brun, Julie Jan, Isabelle Lacaze and Arezki Izri
Additional contact information
Mohammad Akhoundi: Parasitology-Mycology Department, Avicenne Hospital, AP-HP, Sorbonne Paris Nord University, 93000 Bobigny, France
Dahlia Chebbah: Parasitology-Mycology Department, Avicenne Hospital, AP-HP, Sorbonne Paris Nord University, 93000 Bobigny, France
Nohal Elissa: Service Parisien de Santé Environnementale (SPSE), Sous-Direction de la Santé Environnementale et de la Prévention (SDSEP), Direction de la Santé Publique (DSP)—Mairie de Paris, 75019 Paris, France
Sophie Brun: Parasitology-Mycology Department, Avicenne Hospital, AP-HP, Sorbonne Paris Nord University, 93000 Bobigny, France
Julie Jan: Agence Régionale de Santé (ARS) Île-de-France, 35, Rue de la Gare, CEDEX 19, 75935 Paris, France
Isabelle Lacaze: Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment (CSTB), Direction Santé Confort, Division Qualité Sanitaire des Ouvrages, 84, Avenue Jean Jaurès, CEDEX F-77447, 77420 Marne-la-Vallée, France
Arezki Izri: Parasitology-Mycology Department, Avicenne Hospital, AP-HP, Sorbonne Paris Nord University, 93000 Bobigny, France

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 6, 1-18

Abstract: The recent decades’ resurgence of bed bugs as a public health concern in industrialized countries has driven an increased interest on new sustainable insecticide-free methods to monitor and control these ectoparasites. Current methods of detection rely mainly on visual inspection or canine scent detection, which are methods that are time-consuming, require experience, are non-specific or require costly mission repetitions. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are considered an environmentally friendly alternative and a promising approach for bed bug detection. An overview of the released literature on VOCs, their chemical characteristics and their role in bed bugs’ intra- and inter-species communications allowed us to highlight the identification of 49 VOCs in Cimex lectularius (23 molecules) and C. hemipterus (26), which are emitted by both sexes during diverse compartments including aggregation (46), mating (11), defense (4), etc., and all life stages including exuviae or dead bed bugs as a principal indicator of infestation. The latter has a great importance for application of these semiochemicals in successful detection and control management of bed bugs and to prevent their further dispersion. This approach has the advantage of more reliability compared to conventional detection methods with no need for repeated inspections, household furniture moving or resident rehousing for bed bugs’ VOC detection, which are commonly performed by active or passive sampling with absorbing tubes and analyzed by gas chromatography-based analytical platforms.

Keywords: bed bugs; chemical ecology; semiochemicals; olfactory sensilla; VOC detection; pheromones (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/6/5214/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/6/5214/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:6:p:5214-:d:1103699

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().