Triflumuron Effects on the Physiology and Reproduction of Adult Females.

We evaluated the efficacy of the growth regulator triflumuron (TFM) in inducing mortality and disrupting both oviposition and egg hatching in adult females. TFM was administered via feeding, topically or by continuous contact with impregnated surfaces. Feeding resulted in mild biological effects compared with topical and impregnated surfaces.

Cultivation-independent methods reveal differences among bacterial gut microbiota in triatomine vectors of Chagas disease.

Background: Chagas disease is a trypanosomiasis whose agent is the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, which is transmitted to humans by hematophagous bugs known as triatomines. Even though insecticide treatments allow effective control of these bugs in most Latin American countries where Chagas disease is endemic, the disease still affects a large proportion of the population of South America. The features of the disease in humans have been extensively studied, and the genome of the parasite has been sequenced, but no effective drug is yet available to treat Chagas disease.