Potential of ozone technology for German cockroach (bBlattella germanica (L.)) management

Yanlin Tian. M.S., Purdue University, May 2015. Potential of ozone technology for german cockroach (Blattella germanica (L.)) management. Major Professors: Linda J Mason and Ameya D Gondhalekar. German cockroaches (Blattella germanica (L.)) are important urban pests that adversely impact human health. Previous studies indicated that ozone technology (ozone gas) can be used as a management tool to control insect pests in grain storage facilities, stored foods and some finished products. The goal of my study was to broaden the applicability of ozone from traditional stored grain pests to B. germanica. The first part of my study determined the concentration-time (CT) relationship of ozone required to achieve 100% mortality in various life stages (adults, nymphs and eggs) of B. germanica. Results showed that eggs were the most ozone-tolerant life stage and 100% mortality was only achieved after 24 h exposure at 480 ppm ozone (CT of 691200 ppm-min). Second part of my research determined the effects of sub-lethal ozone exposure on reproduction and population growth rate of B. germanica. In general, crosses that included ozonetreated females produced significantly fewer F1 nymphs. Exposure of both sexes to sublethal ozone environment caused significant population growth reduction in comparison to the other three pairings at 7, 11 and 15 weeks post exposure.