The type of blood used to feed Aedes aegypti females affects their cuticular and internal free fatty acid (FFA) profiles.

Aedes aegypti, the primary vector of various arthropod-borne viral (arboviral) diseases such as dengue and Zika, is a popular laboratory model in vector biology. However, its maintenance in laboratory conditions is difficult, mostly because the females require blood meals to complete oogenesis, which is often provided as sheep blood. The outermost layer of the mosquito cuticle is consists of lipids which protects against numerous entomopathogens, prevents desiccation and plays an essential role in signalling processes.

The interaction between cuticle free fatty acids (FFAs) of the cockroaches Blattella germanica and Blatta orientalis and hydrolases produced by the entomopathogenic fungus Conidiobolus coronatus.

The interactions between entomopathogenic fungi and insects serve a classic example of a co-evolutionary arms race between pathogens and their target host. The cuticle, site of the first contact between insects and entomopathogenic fungus, is an important defensive barrier against pathogens. It is covered by a layer of lipids that appears to play a key role in these processes and cuticular free fatty acid (FFA) profiles are consider as a determinant of susceptibility, or resistance, to fungal infections.

Repellents as a major element in the context of prevention of tick-borne diseases.

In Poland, out of the 21 species of ticks described, two species have the greatest epidemiological significance: Ixodes ricinus and Dermacentor reticulatus. Their participation in the transmission of etiologic agents of vector diseases such as Lyme disease, tick-borne encephalitis, human granulocytic anaplasmosis, babesiosis, rickettsiosis and many others is widely known. Due to the often severe and sometimes fatal course of diseases transmitted by ticks, a great deal of emphasis is placed on prophylactic activities, minimizing the possibility of biting and transfering pathogens along with the arachnid saliva.

Susceptibility of Dermacentor reticulatus tick to repellents containing different active ingrediens.

Introduction: Ticks are vectors of human and animal diseases.

Materials And Methods: The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of four different formulations containing DEET, Icaridin, IR3535 and mix of three compounds: DEET, IR3535 and geraniol, against Dermacentor reticulatus ticks.

Results: The repellent effectiveness of these products to adult ticks was different.

Galleria mellonella L. as model organism used in biomedical and other studies.

Comparative of studies of genomes of invertebrates and humans shows that in invertebrates including insects there are numerous homologues of human’s genes coding proteins involved in recognition pathogens or transduction of the expression signal. Thanks this features, insects such as Drosophila melanogaster M., Blattella germanica L.

New 1,5 and 2,5-disubstituted tetrazoles-dependent activity towards surface barrier of Candida albicans.

A series of novel tetrazole derivatives was synthetized using N-alkylation or Michael-type addition reactions, and screened for their fungistatic potential against Candida albicans (the lack of endpoint = 100%). Among them, the selected compounds 2d, 4b, and 6a differing in substituents at the tetrazole ring were non-toxic to Galleria mellonella larvae in vivo and exerted slight toxicity against Caco-2 in vitro (CC at 256 μg/mL). An antagonistic effect of tetrazole derivatives 2d, 4b, and 6a respectively in combination with Fluconazole was shown using the checker board and colorimetric methods (fractional inhibitory concentration indexes FICIs >1).

Methods of testing repellent efficiency against ticks.

The use of repellents is the most important in the tick-bite protection. The tests of repellents efficiency shall give strict answer whether ticks are repelled effectively or not by a given agent. Methods of testing repellent efficiency can be divided in in three groups: experiments without tick host and host stimuli; studies simulating host stimuli, methods of testing repellents on animals or human volunteers.

Methods of mosquito plague control in Świnoujście area based on the analysis of species distribution.

Objective: Studies conducted in 2013 in Świnoujście area aimed at determining mosquito species distribution and analyzing sites, productivity and dynamics of larva and adult breeding as well as developing guidelines for effective mosquito control in this area.

Materialand Methods: Entomological studies were conducted from March to September 2013. Distribution of mosquito larvae and adults was investigated.

[Evaluation of effectiveness of several repellents against mosquito bites available at the Polish market].

Unlabelled: BACKGROUND. Mosquitoes are blood-sucking insects, nuisance to humans and animals. Their bites cause itching and allergic reactions.

[Mosquito control on selected area in Poland after the flood in 2010].

After the flood in 2010 in many regions of Poland mosquitoes occurred in huge number and chemical control of them was performed. In Legionowo district the aerial application of deltamethrin-containing product was done. In the study the efficacy of the treatments was described.

[Synantropic cockroaches (Blattella germanica L.) in hospital environment--microbiological hazard for patients and hospital infections risk assessment].

Objective: The aim of our study was to determine what a hazard for patients creates the presence of cockroaches in hospital environment.

Material And Methods: The probable hospital infections cases in 9 hospitals in Warsaw were found in database of the Country Hospital Morbidity Register for the year 2004 and correlation between such factors as: drug resistance of bacteria isolated from external part of cockroach's bodies, their ability to biofilm building, adherence, resistance to disinfectants, resistance of cockroaches to insecticides, infestation level vs. infections of several body systems was examined.

[Bioactive effectiveness of selected disinfective agents on Gram-negative bacilli isolated from hospital environment].

In our study the susceptibility (MIC) of chosen 21 strains of Gram-negative bacilli isolated in hospitals to disinfectant agents (glucoprotamine, sodium dichloroisocyanurate, potassium persulfate), the effectiveness of these disinfectants against selected bacteria and their effectiveness to biofilm forming bacteria was determined. It was found that glucoprotamine showed the highest activity to Gram-negative bacteria. Obtained MIC values for glucoprotamine (except 1 strain of S.