Studying the behavioral response of blood-sucking disease-vector insects to potentially repellent volatile compounds could shed light on the development of new control strategies. Volatiles released by human facial skin microbiota play different roles in the host-seeking behavior of triatomines. We assessed the repellency effect of such compounds of bacterial origin on Triatoma infestans and Rhodnius prolixus, two important vectors of Chagas disease in Latin America. Using an exposure device, insects were presented to human odor alone (control) and in the presence of three individual test compounds (2-mercaptoethanol, dimethyl sulfide and 2-phenylethanol, the latter only tested in R. prolixus) and the gold-standard repellent NN-diethyl-3-methylbenzamide (DEET). We quantified the time the insects spent in the proximity of the host and determined if any of the compounds evaluated affected the behavior of the insects. We found volatiles that significantly reduced the time spent in the proximity of the host. These were 2-phenylethanol and 2-mercaptoethanol for R. prolixus, and dimethyl sulfide and 2-mercaptoethanol for T. infestans. Such an effect was also observed in both species when DEET was presented, although only at the higher doses tested. The new repellents modulated the behavior of two Chagas disease vectors belonging to two different triatomine tribes, and this was achieved using a dose up to three orders of magnitude lower than that needed to evoke the same effect with DEET. Future efforts in understanding the mechanism of action of repellent compounds such as 2-mercaptoethanol, as well as an assessment of their temporal and spatial repellent properties, could lead to the development of novel control strategies for these insect vectors, refractory to DEET.

中文翻译：

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吸血虫Rhodnius prolixus和Triatoma infestans的新型驱避剂，恰加斯病的媒介

研究吸血病媒昆虫对潜在的驱避性挥发性化合物的行为响应，可能有助于开发新的控制策略。人面部皮肤微生物群释放的挥发物在三氢嘧啶的宿主寻求行为中发挥不同的作用。我们评估了这种细菌来源的化合物对Triatoma infestans和Rhodnius prolixus（拉丁美洲南美锥虫病的两个重要载体）的驱避作用。使用暴露装置，将昆虫单独暴露在人的气味下（对照），并在三种单独的测试化合物（2-巯基乙醇，二甲基硫醚和2-苯基乙醇，仅在pro.prolixus中进行了测试）和金标的情况下暴露驱虫剂NN-二乙基-3-甲基苯甲酰胺（DEET）。我们量化了昆虫在宿主附近度过的时间，并确定是否有任何评估的化合物影响了昆虫的行为。我们发现挥发物可以显着减少花费在宿主附近的时间。对于pro.prolixus，它们是2-苯基乙醇和2-巯基乙醇，而对于T.infestans，它们是二甲基硫醚和2-巯基乙醇。尽管仅在较高的测试剂量下，当存在DEET时，在两个物种中也观察到了这种效果。这些新的驱虫剂调节了属于两个不同的三角藻部落的两个恰加斯病媒介的行为，这是通过使用比引起DEET相同效果所需剂量低三个数量级的剂量来实现的。为了进一步了解驱避剂（例如2-巯基乙醇）的作用机理，