Pyrethroid resistance in tropical bedbugs, Cimex hemipterus, associated with use of treated bednets.

When Tanzanian villages were provided with pyrethroid-treated bednets, bedbugs (Cimicidae) disappeared; however, after about 6 years they have re-appeared in these villages. Using a newly devised test-kit, susceptibility tests of bedbugs Cimex hemipterus (Fabricius) from five of these villages showed that there is resistance to permethrin and alphacypermethrin in bedbugs from each of the villages, in contrast to those from five villages without treated nets. Circumstantial evidence indicates that bedbug resistance to pyrethroid insecticides may evolve more readily in villages with incomplete coverage rates of treated bednets, allowing bedbug infestations to become re-established. Bedbugs have not returned to a village where nearly all the beds have been provided with pyrethroid-treated bednets for 14 years.