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Attractive and repellent properties of many household chemicals may be used to combat synantrophic insects, such as cockroaches. In the natural environment, Shelfordella lateralis (Walker, 1868) (Blattodea, Blattidae) lives in the area spanning Central Asia to North Africa. Furthermore, in many tropical and subtropical countries, it is common in human accomodations. In the laboratory conditions, we determined reaction of cockroaches to aromatic mixtures and medicinal plants often used in households. Attractiveness coefficient was the lowest for cosmetic mixtrures Tutti-fruti and Verbena and Bamboo; other cosmetic aromatizers did not repell this insect (Lilac, Mango) or repelled it poorly (Grapefruit, Amaretto, Pine). Food additives that significantly repelled Sh. lateralis are Apricot, Barberry and Kiwi and lower effects were produced by Biscuit, whereas Vanilla flavouring had no repellent effect. Mixtures for vaping Strawberry pie, Pear, Frozen forest, Irish Cream and Blue Magic exerted strong repellent effects on cockroaches. Low repellent effect on Sh. lateralis were exerted by vaping mixtures Pancakes with Honey, Turkish Tobacco and Grapefruit. No significant effects on the number of cockroaches were exerted by vaping mixtures Vanilla, Club Ice Cream, Blueberry Smoke, Mojito, Chocolate, Apple, Mint and Walnut. Out of the fishing lures, the strongest repellent effects on Sh. lateralis were taken by Blood Worm, Onion and Honey, and weaker effects were exerted by Corn and Vanilla. Imagoes of Sh. lateralis were most significantly repelled by essential oils from jojoba, eucalyptus, daisy, tee tree, Cao Sao Vang balsam, and also fir essential oil. Neither luring nor repellent effects on imagoes of Sh. lateralis were displayed by essential oils from lemon, aloe, peppermint and mandarin. Dry medicinal plants repelled imagoes of Sh. lateralis: inflorescences of Calendula officinalis, leaves of Artemisia absinthium, flowers of Jasminum officinale, leaves of Origanum vulgare, inflorescences of Matricaria chamomilla, inflorescences of Crataegus monogyna, leaves of Mentha x piperita, inflorescences of Achillea millefolium, leaves of Hypericum perforatum, leaves of Aristolochia clematitis and inflorescences of Tanacetum vulgare. No repellent effects on Sh. lateralis were exerted by Chelidonium majus, inflorescences of Tilia cordata and inflorescences of Helichrysum arenarium. Thus, most (40 of 58, or 69.0%) of the tested aromatic substances and medicinal plants repelled synantrophic Turkestan cockroach, while a much smaller share (31.0%) neither significantly lured nor repelled them. No aromatic mixtures attracted Sh. lateralis in our experiment.

The global climate changes are causing an increase in the number and harmfulness of slugs. Deroceras agreste (Linnaeus, 1758) (Stylommatophora, Agriolimacidae) is a polyphagous phytophage that damages over 150 species of plants, including many vegetables, cultivated berries and grasses. Other than decrease in yield, slugs cause deterioration of consumer qualities of the products, promote infections of plants, and are intermediate hosts of some parasites of mammals and birds. Thus, slugs impose great losses on agricultural farming, and therefore the objective of our study was determining the variability of locomotor activity of D. agreste slugs in reaction to aromatic substances. We determined repellent or attractive effects of those substances for the purpose of further using the obtained data for plant protection. We tested 52 substances and their mixtures, which were conditionally divided into the following groups: chemical solvents, plant extracts, aromatizers, organic acids and synthetic cosmetic additives. Only dimethyl sulfoxide could be identified as an attractant. All the rest of the substances increased the speed of the slugs to various degrees, but had no significant effect on the direction of the animals’ movement. Gasoline increased the speed of the slugs’ movement by 3.20 times, xylene by 4.56. The most effective organic acids and aromatizers to increase the moving speed of slugs were avobenzone and formic acid: the first caused a 2.83-fold increase in the moving speed, the other a 3.16-fold increase. Only one of 13 aromatic substances changed the direction of the slugs’ movement during the experiment – β-ionone. As with the plant extracts, the highest effect on locomotor activity of slugs was exerted by tree bark of Quillaja saponaria (3.64-fold) and Aesculus hippocastanum extract (4.33-fold). Furthermore, together with Capsicum frutescens, they changed the direction the mollusks were moving in, and therefore could be used as repellents. Synthetic cosmetic additives hydrolyzed silk and chrysalide oil exerted the greatest effects on the lcomotor activity of slugs (3.16 and 3.20 times, respectively). A total of 78.6% of the slugs moved away from chrysalide oil, and thus this oil may be suggested as a repellent, as well as mousse de babassu and cocamidopropyl betaine (84.6% and 78.6%, respectively). Therefore, a large amount of the tested substances to one or another extent made the slugs move faster, but most of them did not alter the direction in which the slugs were moving.

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OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effectiveness of combined treatment of pathozoospermia in patients with varicocele by performing micro- surgical phlebectomy of varicose veins of the spermatic cord in combination with adjuvant therapy with the Speroton complex MATERIAL AND METHODS Twenty microsurgical phlebectomies of varicose veins of the spermatic cord were performed in patients with pathozoo- spermia (oligoasthenospermia) against the background of varicocele with the appointment of the Speroton complex in the postoperative period for 3 months with an assessment of spermogram parameters before and after the operation in comparison with a group of 20 men with pathozocelemia without the use of adjuvant therapy. The study of morphological and functional parameters of spermogram of men of reproductive age (18-49 years) without signs of immune infertility (MAR-test IgG <10%) before and after the start of treatment was carried out. The average age of men was 33 ± 2.3 years (M ± m). RESULTS All patients with infertility in combination with varicocele had oligoasthenozoospermia before treatment. Three months after the start of treatment in the study groups, there was a statistically significant improvement in sperm counts due to an increase in the concentration of spermatozoa in 1 ml of ejaculate, an increase in the number of progressively mobile forms and total motility of spermatozoa by 50-68%, an increase in the number of live sperm by 19-20% and a decrease in the num- ber of dead forms of spermatozoa by 30-35%. A statistically significant decrease in the DNA fragmentation index by 34-52% (p <0.05) was found in all study groups. It was found that combination therapy, including microsurgical phlebectomy of the spermatic cord veins using the Speroton complex for 3 months, statistically significantly led to an increase in the concentration of spermatozoa in 1 ml of ejaculate (38.6 [38.2; 69.4]), an increase in progressively mobile forms (49.2 [26.7; 47.2]%) and general motility (72.2 [35.3; 64.7]%) of spermatozoa and viable forms (67.8 [39.3; 81.7] %), a decrease in the DNA fragmenta- tion index compared with the spermogram indicators of patients who underwent only microsurgical phlebectomy (p <0.05 for all study indicators). In the group of patients after combined treatment with the inclusion of adjuvant therapy of the Speroton complex, there was a statistically significant decrease in the sperm DNA fragmentation index to almost normal values (12.1 ± 1.1%) compared with the group of patients who underwent only surgery (17.2 ± 0.8%) (p = 0.01). Combined treatment (micro- surgical phlebectomy of the veins of the spermatic cord in combination with adjuvant therapy Speroton) of pathozoospermia in men of reproductive age with infertility on the background of varicocele can significantly improve the morphofunctional parameters of spermogram after 3 months from the start of treatment compared to men who underwent only surgical correction of varicocele.