Team:Aix-Marseille
Breaking Bugs - Project description
Our focus this year is fighting bed bugs, a worldwide invasive pest, which is invading homes and biting humans for their blood. These tiny bugs became harmful to humans from the moment we made caves our homes, as the original hosts of bed bugs were bats. Nowadays humans don’t live in caves, but this temporary troglodyte dwelling came with a cost: fighting against an insect addicted to human blood. While their bite usually don’t transmit any disease, it still induces serious dermatological and allergy issues.
Furthermore, only one bedbug is enough to declare a house good to be burnt to the ground ! To get rid of them, all personal effects must be decontaminated by fumigation or high temperature with the help of a professional. Thus, it requires people to leave their house for a few weeks. Moreover the fumigation has to be restarted a month later when eggs have hatched, because of their resistance to pesticides. This entire process comes with a very high cost !
But have no fear, Aix-Marseille team is here. To find new ways to get rid of this pest we concentrated our efforts on three research axes. Firstly, the influence of pheromones on the sense of direction of beds bugs to create traps. Secondly, the possible use of chitinases and other proteases to break down the exoskeleton of the insect. Finally, disrupt the endosymbiotic bacterium of the bedbugs that allow the regulation of the reproduction to stop them from spreading. Together, we will find a solution to Break Bugs !