Repellent activity of essential oils to the Lone Star tick, Amblyomma americanum.

Background: The Lone Star tick, Amblyomma americanum is important to human health because of a variety of pathogenic organisms transmitted to humans during feeding events, which underscores the need to identify novel approaches to prevent tick bites. Thus, the goal of this study was to test natural and synthetic molecules for repellent activity against ticks in spatial, contact and human fingertip bioassays.

Methods: The efficacy of essential oils and naturally derived compounds as repellents to Am. americanum nymphs was compared in three different bioassays: contact, spatial and fingertip repellent bioassays.

Results: Concentration response curves after contact exposure to 1R-trans-chrysanthemic acid (TCA) indicated a 5.6 μg/cm concentration required to repel 50% of ticks (RC), which was five- and sevenfold more active than DEET and nootkatone, respectively. For contact repellency, the rank order of repellency at 50 μg/cm for natural oils was clove > geranium > oregano > cedarwood > thyme > amyris > patchouli > citronella > juniper berry > peppermint > cassia. For spatial bioassays, TCA was approximately twofold more active than DEET and nootkatone at 50 μg/cm but was not significantly different at 10 μg/cm. In spatial assays, thyme and cassia were the most active compounds tested with 100% and 80% ticks repelled within 15 min of exposure respectively and was approximately twofold more effective than DEET at the same concentration. To translate these non-host assays to efficacy when used on the human host, we quantified repellency using a finger-climbing assay. TCA, nootkatone and DEET were equally effective in the fingertip assay, and patchouli oil was the only natural oil that significantly repelled ticks.

Conclusions: The differences in repellent potency based on the assay type suggests that the ability to discover active tick repellents suitable for development may be more complicated than with other arthropod species; furthermore, the field delivery mechanism must be considered early in development to ensure translation to field efficacy. TCA, which is naturally derived, is a promising candidate for a tick repellent that has comparable repellency to commercialized tick repellents.