BIOSIS Evolutions
2
the presence of something and leave," explained
Coats. "If it simply keeps the roaches away, that's
good enough."
Humans have an inherent dislike of roaches, and
for good reason. They are capable of transmitting
disease. Cockroaches produce very dry feces, which
form dust-like particles that have been linked to
allergic reactions and to childhood asthma.
So, how is it that Coats can stand working with
cockroaches?
"I enjoy working with them, but I wouldn't want
them in my home. I respect them as adaptive objects:
Cockroaches are great survivors."
See the search tip above to learn more about how to
search BIOSIS databases for research on the insect-
repelling abilities of plants.
Search Tips in the News:
Cockroaches Find Catnip Naturally Repellent
Coats determined that the minor isomer of nepatalac-
tone was about 100 times more effective in repelling
cockroaches than DEET, a major commercial pesticide.
Although nepatalactone does not kill cockroaches
like DEET, a small amount may be enough to keep
the insects off the pantry shelves.
Essential oils may also be more effective than
conventional pesticides in the long-term, since
insects have a tendency to evolve resistance to
pesticides. Nepatalactone does not kill cockroaches,
instead, it makes it exceedingly unpleasant for them
enough that cockroaches learn to stay away.
"Resistance is slower to develop, the roaches sense
continued from page 1
Search Tips: Use Meeting Reports To
Repel Pests...
No, we are not suggesting that you swat bugs with a
rolled-up manuscript. As you can see from the article
on page 1, interesting developments are often first
reported at meetings and conference reports long
before they may make it into science journals. When
you need to find meeting and conference reports,
there are no better sources than BIOSIS Previews
and Biological Abstracts/RRM
®
(Reports, Reviews,
Meetings)
. For this Search Tip, we will show you
how you can access references to meetings using
Biological Abstracts/RRM (Reports, Reviews,
Meetings)
from 1989 through 1999 on SilverPlatter
®
.
To find references that came from meeting reports,
simply search the document type (DT) field:
Meeting in DT
which retrieves 1,864,191 records. That is a bit much
to scan through, so, for the sake of the example, let's
look at records dealing with organisms that can be
used against other organisms. We can search for
essential oils, as mentioned in our news story, in the
subject term (TS) or we can search using a controlled
term that describes a role of the organism, such as
`biocontrol,' in the organism (OR) field. Using an
asterisk (*) for truncation (see Quick Tips), we can
search both:
(biocontrol* in or) or (essential oil* in TS)
which gives us 182 records. If we combine these two
searches, we can narrow it down to 110 records. To
further narrow our search, we can select an attribute
of the type of article that we are looking for. In this
case, we want to see articles that show substances
for pest control. We can search the major concepts
(MC) field for pesticides or pest-management, or we
can truncate the word `pest':
pest* in mc
which brings up 22,705 records. If you combine all
three searches, you end up with 37 records, a
reasonable amount to scroll through on your comput-
er. At the left are samples of the records we retrieved
using this search strategy.
TI: Seasonal variation in the essential oil composition of
Commiphora quadricincta
(Schweinf) and its effect on the maturation of immature adults of the desert locust
Schistocerca gregaria (Forskal) (Orthoptera: Acrididae).
MT: Joint Congress of the Entomological Society of Southern Africa (11th Congress) and
the African Association of Insect Scientists (12th Congress), Stellenbosch, South Africa,
June 30-July 4, 1997.
TI: Use of essential oil components to control postharvest brown rot of sweet cherry.
MT: 218th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Parts 1 and 2, New
Orleans, Louisiana, USA, August 22-26, 1999.
TI: Repellent activity of catnip and osage orange fruit to the German cockroach.
MT: 218th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Parts 1 and 2, New
Orleans, Louisiana, USA, August 22-26, 1999.
TI: Evaluation of selected plant essential oils for suppression of
Ralstonia solanacearum
and
Meloidogyne arenaria on tomato.
MT: Annual Meeting of the American Phytopathological Society, Montreal, Quebec,
Canada, August 7-11, 1999.
TI: Bioactivity of products derived from some indigenous plants against
Sitophilus
zeamais (Mots.) and Prostephanus truncatus (Horn) in stored maize.
MT: Joint Congress of the Entomological Society of Southern Africa (11th Congress) and
the African Association of Insect Scientists (12th Congress), Stellenbosch, South Africa,
June 30-July 4, 1997.
