ABSTRACT
Fumigant toxicity and repellency of essential oils from cinnamon, thyme, and lavender against Musca domestica L.

Catalina Badilla-Soto1, Gonzalo Silva-Aguayo1*, J. Concepción Rodríguez-Maciel2, Inés Figueroa1, Marcela Rodríguez3, Patricia Loyola1, Gabriela Oyarce1, and José Leyton1
 
We evaluated the fumigant toxicity, behavioral, and ovipositional repellent properties of essential oils derived from cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum Blume), thyme(Thymus vulgaris L.), and lavender (Lavandula officinalis Chaix) against adults (aged 1-3 d old, undifferentiated by sex) of the housefly, Musca domestica L., under laboratory conditions. Adult specimens were obtained from cattle barns and subsequently maintained in controlled environments. Different concentrations of each essential oil were tested to assess their impact on housefly mortality and repellency. The main components in each oil included cinnamaldehyde (76.1%) in C. zeylanicum, thymol (37.9%) and p-cymol (21.09%) in T. vulgaris, linalool (31.06%), and linalyl anthranilate (21.9%) in L. officinalis. The bioassays indicated that essential oils of T. vulgaris (LC50 = 46.7 mL L-1 air) and L. officinalis (LC50 = 144.5 mL L-1 air) did not cause more than 50% mortality in fumigant activity against houseflies. In behavioral tests, houseflies treated with C. zeylanicum and T. vulgaris at 20% and L. officinalis at 20% and 40% concentration remained longer in the untreated or intermediate zones than in the treated areas. Lastly, in oviposition trials, L. officinalis showed no oviposition at any of the tested concentrations. These results suggest that essential oils from cinnamon, thyme, and lavender could be viable alternatives to traditional chemical insecticides for controlling houseflies in livestock and urban settings.
Keywords: Botanical insecticides, Cinnamomum zeylanicum, Lavandula officinalis, Thymus vulgaris, veterinary terpenoids, urban pest.
1Universidad de Concepción, Facultad de Agronomía, Chillán, Chile.
2Colegio de Postgraduados, Campus Montecillo, Texcoco, Estado de México, México.
3Universidad de Concepción, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanográficas, Concepción, Chile.
*Corresponding author (gosilva@udec.cl).