Effects of solvents and surfactant agents on the female and larvae of cattle tick Boophilus microplus.

Many natural compounds have low water solubility and need to be dissolved in organic solvents, or surfactant agents must be used before addition into experimental systems. Therefore, it is necessary to determine their toxicity. Experiments were performed aiming to select solvents to be used in the bioassays, searching new acaricide agents from plants. Laboratory tests were carried out on larvae and adults of the cattle tick Boophilus microplus to determine the sensibility of B. microplus female and larvae to different solvents (acetone, methanol, ethanol and 1% dimethyl sulfoxide) and surfactant agents (1% Tween 80 and 5% Triton X-100) using the larval immersion test (LIT) and adult immersion test (AIT). In the AIT, the effect of the treatments on engorged females was assessed by measuring egg production and hatching rate. Acetone was toxic to the adults promoting mortality of 100%. Methanol and ethanol caused 45.3 and 14.2% of mortality, respectively. The other tested substances were not toxic to the engorged females of B. microplus. In the LIT, it was observed that the larvae were more resistant; after 48 h, about 100% of the larvae were alive in all the treatments except with acetone that caused a mortality of 10%.