Potensi Daun Salam (Syzygium polyanthum) Sebagai Repelen Alami Bagi Kecoa Amerika (Periplaneta americana)

Abstract

Cockroaches are insects that cause more disadvantage to people. Beside leaving the smelly odor, cockroaches are also as vector of several diseases. American cockroach is the most common cockroach found on Indonesian settlements. By using sintetic insecticide to control the cockroach can harmfull to human being. The possible solution that can be done is by using repellent made of plants material that containing insect repellent, such as bay leaves. Bay leaves containsessential oils, flavonoids, and tannins which is suspected as insect repellent. This study aimed to determine the ability of bay leaves as natural repellent for adult American cockroach. The experiment was conducted using a randomized block design with 3 treatments (the young leaves, old leaves, and control)and 10 replications. Analysis of variance and continue with Least Significant Difference (LSD) at the 5% significance level was used for data analysis. The result showed that 5 gram of bay leaves could be a natural repellent for the American cockroach adults as long as72 hours. This is indicated by average percentage of the repellent power both of old and young bay leaves remained above 70% for 72 hours. Keywords: american cockroach, bay leaf , repellent