WO1992022200A1

WO1992022200A1 - High activity cockroach bait trays

Info

Publication number: WO1992022200A1
Application number: PCT/US1992/005121
Authority: WO
Inventors: Richard S. Patterson; Philip G. Koehler; Richard J. Gouger
Original assignee: Ici Americas Inc.; THE UNITED NATIONS OF AMERICA as represented by THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE; University Of Florida
Priority date: 1991-06-19
Filing date: 1992-06-15
Publication date: 1992-12-23
Also published as: MX9203054A; AU2239692A

Abstract

The present invention is drawn to a device and process for killing cockroaches, which employ: a receptable (11, 12) defining at least one opening (15, 16) dimensioned to permit entry of a cockroach; and an amount of contact cockroach toxicant (18) effective to kill at least one cockroach, and an amount of cockroach attractant (17) effective to lure an adult cockroach, both of which one retained in said receptable (11, 12) in a spatial configuration such that a cockroach must come into contact with the toxicant (18) in order to reach (i.e. get to, or arrive at) the attractant (17). The instant invention may combine high acitivity fast-acting contact toxicant(s) (18) with a cockroach attractant(s) (17), in a manner which overcomes the previously encountered problem of a loss of attraction due to the presence of the toxicant (18).

Description

HIGH ACTIVITY COCKROACH BAIT TRAYS

Background of the Invention

The control of cockroaches is a matter of rising concern as public health concerns and regulatory scrutiny increase. Methods of pest control are limited, however, by the public's rising distaste for pesticides and particularly for broadcast methods of pesticide application. Many pesti¬ cides are toxic to animals and humans, with children being particularly susceptible, and broadcast methods such as generalized spraying over broad areas are frequently unac¬ ceptable due to the risks presented by the exposed toxic material.

Cockroach bait trays are intended to avoid the problems and risks associated with broadcast application methods. Bait trays are partially enclosed and can be precisely placed at locations where the infestation is localized. They thus avoid or at least minimize the exposure of the pesticide to unwary children and household pets, as well as the use of excessive amounts of the pesticide, thereby reducing the contamination of household surfaces and the atmosphere. In fact, certain trays are actually traps which avoid the use of a pesticide entirely, functioning instead to restrain the cockroaches by mechanical means such as physical barriers or sticky surfaces, or electrical means such as electrical shock barriers once they have been lured into or toward the trap. Other trays offer no hindrance to the escape of the cockroach once it takes the bait. They rely instead on the ingestion or contact absorption of the pesticide by the cockroach once it has been lured to the bait, the cockroach then expiring elsewhere once it leaves the tray. The term "tray" will be used in the generic sense

SUBSTITUTESHEET in this application, to encompass devices which restrain the cockroach from escape as well as devices which permit escape.

All of these methods of application have their limitations, however, due to the nature and sensory charac¬ teristics of cockroaches themselves. Cockroaches have highly developed tactile and olfactory senses and a quick reflex, which frequently permit them to detect sticky compositions before they become entrapped by them, and to detect certain lethal substances before ingesting them. For example, attractants which are combined with pesticides, whether the attractants be food attractants, sex attractants or other¬ wise, frequently lose their appeal to the cockroaches and their effectiveness as baits. The loss of appeal is less of a problem when pesticides of low concentration and/or a slow rate of kill are used. The consequence, however- is a loss of effectiveness of the tray, since a significant portion of the insects will escape the tray before the pesticide has time to act.

Summary of the Invention

A cockroach bait tray has now been discovered which both effectively lures cockroaches and kills them in a relatively short time. This is achieved by the inclusion in the tray of an amount of contact cockroach toxicant effective to kill at least one cockroach, and an amount of cockroach attractant effective to lure an adult cockroach, in a spatial configuration such that a cockroach must come into contact with the contact cockroach toxicant in order to reach (i.e. get to- or arrive at) the attractant. In preferred embodi¬ ments, the spatial arrangement is one which retains the contact cockroach toxicant and the cockroach attractant substantially free of cross contamination. The invention extends to a wide range of contact cockroach toxicants, as well as a wide range of cockroach attractants. The invention thus offers for the first time a tray which provides both an effective lure and a high level of lethality, a combination which has eluded trays in the past.

The contact cockroach toxicant in the present invention is one which causes the death of the cockroach when the cockroach comes in contact with it, ingestion not being necessary. Contact toxicants suitable for use in the present invention include those involving biological control as well as those involving chemical control. Any biological control organisms, or materials that are derived from such organisms, that are effective when dispersed dry may be used. Examples are various types of fungi and nematodes. Those skilled in the insect control art are aware of certain fungi which produce spores which are lethal to cockroaches upon contact, and of certain nematodes similarly lethal to cockroaches upon contact. All such organisms are applicable herein. Fungi and nematodes may be ground to a coarse powder prior to placement inside the tray without loss of effectiveness. Chemical control agents are primarily organic pesticide compounds with a high lethality. Prime examples are pyre- throid insecticides.

The contamination referred to above is any type of commingling or mixing of the attractant with the toxicant, as for example, common solutes in a single solvent, or common components of a suspension or other type of mixture, whether it be homogenous or otherwise. The phrase "substantially free of contamination" is used herein to denote either zero contamination or a sufficiently low level of contamination that the effectiveness of the attractant in attracting cockroaches is not impaired.

The phrase "cross contamination" refers to mutual contamination of the two components, and the phrase "substan¬ tially free of cross contamination" denotes either zero cross contamination or a sufficiently low level of cross contamina¬ tion that the effectiveness of the attractant as an

SUBSTITUTESHEET attractant and of the toxicant as a toxicant are not impaired. Examples of configurations which are "substantially free of contamination" and of "cross contamination" are:

attractant and toxicant both in liquid form, spaced apart from each other by a vapor space or a porous solid barrier; attractant in solid form and toxicant in liquid form, spaced apart from each other by a vapor space or a porous solid barrier, or in contact with each other such that the liquid toxicant either does not penetrate the solid attractant or does so only along a limited surface region, not affecting the bulk of the solid attractant or other surface regions of the attractant which are accessible to the cockroaches; attractant in solid form and toxicant in solid form dispersed in a liquid carrier, spaced apart from each other by a vapor space or a porous solid barrier, or with the liquid carrier in contact with the solid attractant such that the carrier either does not penetrate the solid attractant or does so only along a limited surface region, not affecting the bulk of the solid attractant or other surface regions of the attractant which are accessible to the cockroaches; attractant in solid form and toxicant in solid form, physically separate or with only a minor degree of contact, such as adjacent solid blocks, or powder lying adjacent to a block; and most forms of incidental contact between liquid or solid toxicant and solid or semi-solid attractant, even when one is a liquid and the other is an absorptive or soluble solid, provided that an accessible portion of the solid does not contain absorbed liquid or does not dissolve in the liquid over a time span on the order of 24 hours. Examples of configurations which are not "substan¬ tially free of cross contamination" are: attractant and toxicant both in liquid form, mixed together as a homogenous solution if miscible or as a suspension if immiscible; attractant in solid or semi-solid form and toxicant in liquid form, the toxicant combined with the attractant to form a paste, dispersion, slurry or other kind of near-homogenous combination; attractant and toxicant both in solid form as well-mixed finely divided solids or coarse grains or a combination of both.

The tray itself is any receptacle suitable for holding the attractant and toxicant in the type of configura¬ tion described above, with at least one opening dimensioned to permit entry of a cockroach. The tray need not contain means for physically retaining cockroaches after entry, although such means may be included as part of the construc¬ tion of the tray. The tray will generally be of a size and shape permitting it to be placed in locations where cock¬ roaches are likely to be located, and out of reach of animals and children. •

Brief Description of the Drawings

FIG. 1 is a plan view of the bottom half of a bait tray in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional side view of the bait tray of FIG. 1, taken along the line 2-2 thereof.

SUBSTITUTESHEET DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION AND PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

This invention extends to a wide range of cockroach attractants, examples of which are food attractants, sex attractants, aggregation attractants and oviposition lures. Some of the commonly used food attractants are sugar solu¬ tions such as molasses, corn syrup, and honey, as well as grain, cereal or flour foodstuffs such as oatmeal, bran, wheat, and peanut butter. These materials may take the form of grains, particles, flakes or other solid pieces, or gels, slurries, pastes, or viscous liquids. Sex attractants include natural pheromones attractive to males and secreted by glands in the terminal sections of the abdomen of the female. Natural aggregation pheromones are generally secreted by males. Both are complex mixtures, including long-chain unsaturated alcohols, aldehydes, esters or combinations thereof. The phermone complex of sPeriplaneta americana is well known. These pheromones have been isolated and/or synthesized, one such component is known as Periplanone B which may be used in the tray. The cockroach attractants of the present invention may be in either a solid or semi-solid form. The cockroach attractant may be combined (e.g. mixed) with a cockroach toxicant, so that cockroaches reaching the attractant-toxicant combination will further assimilate toxicant therefrom.

As noted above, prime examples of contact toxicants useful in this invention are pyrethroids. The pyrethroids themselves extend to a wide range of chemical structures, including both naturally occurring or derived pyrethrins and the synthesized analogs or derivatives generally known as synthetic pyrethroids. Pyrethroids may be used singly or in combination.

SUBSTITUTESHEET Examples of synthetic pyrethroids which may be used in the present invention are:

allethrin alphametrin barthrin bifenthrin biopermethrin biores ethrin cismethrin cyclethrin cyfluthrin cyhalothrin cypermethrin deltamethrin dimethrin fenothrin fenpropanate fenvalerate flucythrin fluvalinate furethrin indothrin permethrin phthalithrin resmethrin tefluthrin tetramethrin tralomethrin

including their enantiomers or mixtures of enatiomers such as s-fenralerate and lambda-cyhalothrin.

Pyrethroids of particular interest are cypermethrin, cyhalothrin, tralomethrin, bifenthrin, permethrin, cyfluthrin and fenvalerate. Preferred pyrethroids among these are cypermethrin, cyhalothrin, tralomethrin, cyfluthrin and fenvalerate, and particularly preferred are cypermethrin,

SUBSTITUTESHEET cyhalothrin and cyfluthrin. A particularly effective pyre¬ throid in the context of this invention in cypermethrin.

When chemical toxicants such as pyrethroids are used, they may assume any form in which they are known to be effective in other insecticide applications. Examples are dusts, granules, wettable powders, emulsions and liquid solutions. Aqueous solutions, dusts and wettable powders are preferred, the wettable powders applied as aqueous disper¬ sions. For example, the present invention may utilize the toxicant in the form of a dust or powder (e.g. as a layer) distributed on a non-porous solid surface in the receptacle.

The amount of toxicant used in a tray is not critical and may vary widely. The lethality of the tray will in most cases vary with the amount of toxicant, the particular toxicant or type of toxicant used, and frequently with the formulation used. The variations are largely a matter of degree, however, and both the variation and methods for determining which toxicants, the amounts of the toxicant, and which formulations of the toxicant are optimal, for any particular tray or environment, are either known or well within the routine skill of the experienced and skilled pesticide chemist. In most applications, however, particu¬ larly with pyrethroid toxicants, best results will be obtained with trays containing at least about 0.05 milligram of active ingredient (i.e., the pyrethroid itself), preferably from about 0.1 to about 10.0 milligrams, and most preferably from about 0.1 to about 1.0 milligram.

The spatial arrangement of the attractant and toxicant in the receptacle or tray is such that a cockroach must come into contact with the contact cockroach toxicant in order to reach (i.e. get to, or arrive at) the cockroach attractant e.g. the contact cockroach toxicant may be located between the at least one opening of the trap and the cockroach attractant or the contact cockroach toxicant may surround, encircle or be above on a disk or screen over the cockroach

SUBSTITUTE SHEET attractant. For example, if the toxicant is present as a pool of liquid or a thin layer of powder, the attractant may be in the form of a mound or cake at the center of the pool or layer, or off to one side opposite an opening through which the cockroach enters the tray. As another example, the toxicant may be in the form of a liquid solution absorbed into (and thus retained in) the interstices or pores of a porous solid support (e.g. a sheet, such as a disk of filter paper) , or a solid residue retained in the interstices or pores of the porous solid support after evaporation of a liquid solvent or carrier, with the attractant as a mound, cake or other such form, resting on the surface of the support. A still further example is the arrangement whereby a liquid form of the attractant forms a pool at the center of a pool of a liquid-form toxicant, the pools separated by an appropriate containing wall.

The receptacle itself may assume any size or shape appropriate to the location for which it is intended. Small flat circular cylindrical contains ranging in diameter from about 1.0 to about 10cm with opening along the upper rim are one example. Others will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art.

FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate a bait tray suitable for use in the practice of the present invention, containing a contact toxicant and cockroach attractant in an arrangement conforming to the invention.

The tray is in two parts — a base 11 and a lid 12. FIG. 1 shows the base 11 without the lid, and FIG. 2 shows thf base and lid combined, with mating parts which snap together at the center of the tray 13 and along the tray periphery 14. The base and lid are each approximately 6cm square, and the two combined are approximately 1cm in height. The base is shaped to provide four entry ramps 15 permitting cockroach entry, each terminating at its upper end in an entry port 16 leading to the interior of the tray and the

SUBSTITUTESHEET toxicant and attractant contained therein. The attractant is in the form of a ring-shaped cake 17 of. bait surrounding the entral axis of the tray, and the toxicant occupies a larger ring-shaped area 18 surrounding the bait. A small retaining barrier 19 separates the bait from the toxicant and facili¬ tates their placement in the tray. This arrangement requires the cockroach to contact the toxicant on its way to the bait.

The following examples are offered for purposes of illustration, and are not intended to limit the scope of the inventions as defined by the appended claims.

Example 1

The pyrethroids were dissolved in acetone and pipetted onto a piece of filter paper 4 centimeters in diameter in the various quantities in Table 1. The attrac¬ tant was an oatmeal-based foodstuff, Purina Laboratory Rat Chow, commercially available to toxicology laboratories. For each experiment, the toxicant-impregnated filter paper was placed together with a cotton-stopper vial of water and a rolled piece of cardboard (to serve as a harborage for the cockroaches) in a 4-liter glass jar that had been greased with mineral oil and petroleum jelly (at a weight ratio of 2:3) to prevent cockroach escape. A 1-gram quantity of foodstuff was also placed in the jar in a mound on the center of the disk, together with a cotton-stoppered vial of water (adjacent to the disk) . Twenty-five male Orlando normal German cockroaches were then placed in the jar. Three to five repetitions were done on each experiment. The pyre¬ throids used in these experiments were cypermethrin and cyhalothrin.

Mortality was recorded by visual observation, and recorded as percent mortality of the population in each jar. Multiple repetitions of the same test were averaged, and the

SUBSTITUTE SHEET results were compared to a control test in which no pyre¬ throid was present. The results are listed in Table I.

TABLE I

Test Results on German Cockroaches— Liquid Toxicant Retained in Filter Paper .. . (o)

Control 0 f ¹a)' Milligrams of pyrethroid toxicant per filter paper disk

(4cm in diameter) * ' At 24 hours, averaged from multiple repetitions.

Clearly, both cypermethrin and cyhalothrin were effective in this test.

Example 2

This example illustrates the use of further pyre¬ throids as well as a different foodstuff attractant and a different form of the pyrethroids. The pyrethroids in this case were wettable powder formulations at various toxicant loadings as indicated in Table II, and were dispersed in water to achieve the amounts indicated in Table II per ImL of dispersion. The foodstuff was a sugar cube measuring 1.2cm 3.

SUBSTITUTE SHEET The receptacle was a flat inverted plastic lid approximately 9cm in diameter and approximately 1cm in height. The wettable powder dispersions in ImL volumes were placed in the lids, and the water in the dispersions was allowed to evaporate, leaving a layer of dry powder. A sugar cube was then placed in the center of each lid, and the lids were covered with cardboard disks each with four half-inch wide slots equally spaced around the circumference of the disk. Thus covered, the lids were each placed in an 8-liter glass jar that had been greased with mineral oil and petroleum jelly as in Example l. Also placed in the jars were an additional food source in the form of 1-gram quantities of the same rat chow used in Example 1 and a cotton-stoppered vial of water (outside the covered lid) . Male and female Orlando normal German cockroaches were added to separate jars, 25 per jar, and mortality was recorded as before, again using multiple repetitions and recording an average mortality for each application rate.

The results are listed in Table II.

TABLE II

Test Results on German Cockroaches— Toxicant as Wettable Powder Dispersed in Water e t Mor a i (b)

SUBSTITUTESHEET

* ' Milligrams of pyrethroid toxicant per plastic receptacle

(9cm in diameter)

* ' At 24 hours, averaged from multiple repetitions.

The foregoing is offered primarily for purposes of illustration. It will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that further substances, arrangements, proportions and configurations beyond those disclosed and described herein may be utilized without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Index of Elements Designated by a Numeral

11 base

SUBSTITUTESHEET

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A device comprising: a receptacle defining at least one opening dimensioned to permit entry of a cockroach; and an amount of contact cockroach toxicant effective to kill at least one cockroach, and an amount of cockroach attractant effective to lure an adult cockroach, retained in said receptacle, in a spatial configuration such that a cockroach must come into contact with said contact cockroach toxicant in order to reach said attractant.

2. The device of Claim 1 wherein said contact cock¬ roach toxicant is located between said at least one opening and said cockroach attractant.

3. The device of Claims 1 or 2 wherein said contact cockroach toxicant surrounds said cockroach attractant.

4. The device of any of Claims 1-3 wherein said contact cockroach toxicant is in a form selected from the group consisting of a liquid solution, a dust and a power.

5. The device of any of Claims 1-4 wherein said contact toxicant is in a form selected from the group consis¬ ting of a liquid solution retained in the pores of a porous solid support, a solid residue retained in the pores of a porous solid support, and a dust or power distributed on a non-porous solid surface in said receptacle.

SUBSTITUTE SHEET

6. The device of any of Claims 1-5 wherein said cockroach attractant is at least one member selected from the group consisting of sex attractants, aggregation pheromones, and foodstuffs.

7. The device of any of Claims 1-3 wherein said contact cockroach toxicant is in a layer of powder on a non- porous solid surface in said receptacle, and said cockroach attractant is a foodstuff.

8. The device of any of Claims 1-7 wherein said contact cockroach toxicant is a pyrethroid toxicant.

9. The device of Claim 8 wherein said pyrethroid toxicant is at least one member selected from the group con¬ sisting of cypermethrin, cyhalothrin, tralomethrin, bifenthrin, permethrin, cyfluthrin and fenvalerate.

10. The device of Claim 8 wherein said pyrethroid toxicant is at least one member selected from the group con¬ sisting of cypermethrin, cyhalothrin and cyfluthrin.

11. The device of any of Claims 1-10 wherein said receptacle contains at least about 0.05 milligram of said con¬ tact cockroach toxicant.

12. The device of any of Claims 1-11 wherein said receptacle contains from about 0.1 milligram to about 10 mil¬ ligrams of said contact cockroach toxicant.

13. The device of any of Claims 1-12 wherein said cockroach attractant is substantially free of contamination with said contact cockroach toxicant.

SUBSTITUTESHEET