Laboratory and field trials of permethrin-treated cotton used as nesting material to control fleas (Insecta: Siphonaptera) on cricetid rodents.
Upholstery cotton treated with four different concentrations (0.25-2.0%) (2,500-20,000 ppm) of an aqueous permethrin solution, used as nesting material by white mice, was laboratory-tested against the potential plague vectors Oropsylla montana (Baker), Thrassis bacchi (Rothschild), and Orchopeas howardi (Baker) and found highly effective (P less than 0.001) for 1 yr. Similarly treated cotton gauze was tested under ambient and 75% RH and was found to be highly effective (P less than 0.001) in both environments for 1 yr. A separate test determined that the LD50 of permethrin-treated cotton was less than 10 ppm. Cotton tested with 0.5% permethrin and distributed under field conditions to cricetid rodents for use as nesting material was found to be highly effective (P less than 0.001 as a pulicide for greater than 4 mo when tested during winter in Larimer County, Colo. Permethrin-treated cotton was less successful in controlling fleas on cricetid rodents during the summer months in a New Mexico hyperendemic plague area.
Beard
M L
ML
Bacterial Zoonoses Branch, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Fort Collins, Colo. 80522.
Maupin
G O
GO
Craven
R B
RB
Montman
C E
CE
Barnes
A M
AM
D000818:Animals; D003411:Arvicolinae / Q000469:parasitology*; D004478:Ectoparasitic Infestations / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000662:veterinary*; D003368:Gossypium; D007306:Insecticides; D026023:Permethrin; D011722:Pyrethrins; D012376:Rodent Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005423:Siphonaptera
D007306:Insecticides; D011722:Pyrethrins; D026023:Permethrin