Integrated House Fly Management Program
By Ravi Chandra

The house fly, Musca domestica Linnaeus, is a well-known cosmopolitan pest of both farm and home. This species is always found in association with humans or activities of humans. It is the most common species found on hog and poultry farms, horse stables and ranches. Not only are houseflies a nuisance, but they can also transport disease-causing organisms. Excessive fly population is not only an irritant to farm workers but, when there are nearby human habitations, a public health problem could occur.

Identification

The adult housefly, Musca domestica, is 1/4-inch long and light grey in colour. It has four dark lengthwise stripes on the thorax, pale yellow abdomen, and reddish eyes. Housefly maggots are 3/8-inch long, creamy white, and spindle-shaped.

Description

Adult - The adult housefly has a grey thorax with 4 dark longitudinal stripes. Its abdomen is yellow or partially yellow with a dark median line. The adult male can grow upto 6.5 mm.

Egg - The egg of a fly is white in colour and is about 1 mm long. Eggs are long in shape with bluntly rounded ends. They occur in clusters of about 100.

Larva - Larva of a fly is smooth with white maggot that has a pointed head and no appendages. It develops through 3 instars and may be as long as 13 mm when mature. Two spiracles, which are slit like resemble a pair of eyes. In a mature larva, they occur on the tail end. Second and third instar larvae also have spiracles near the head each with six or seven tiny dots.

Pupa - Pupa of the housefly develops within a dark brown puparium (hardened skin of a last larval instar) and is a little over 6 mm long. The puparium has rounded ends and increases slightly in diameter from front to rear.

Adults usually live 15 to 25 days, but at times may live up to two months. They survive only about two to three days without food. Longevity is enhanced by availability of suitable food, especially sugar. They require food before they copulate, and copulation is completed in as few as two minutes or as long as 15 minutes.

Problems Caused by House Flies

The housefly is often a carrier of diseases, such as typhoid fever, cholera, dysentery, and anthrax. Flies transmit diseases by carrying disease organisms onto food. They pick up disease organisms on their leg hairs or eat them and then regurgitate them onto food.

Flies commonly develop in large numbers in poultry manure under caged hens, and this is a serious problem requiring control. The control of flies is vital to human health and comfort in many areas of the world. The most important damage related with this insect is the annoyance and the indirect damage produced by the potential transmission of more than 100 pathogens associated with it.

Controlling Flies

The three basic principles of house fly control are sanitation, exclusion and prevention through chemical and non-chemical methods. Sanitation will provide the best long-term control, followed by exclusion and prevention.

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) IS THE KEY. Managing fly infestation in and around structures can be a frustrating task if it is not properly implemented. Employing IPM approach can easily control fly menace. This approach consists of a thorough inspection that determines how flies may have entered the facility, their food sources, breeding sites and sanitation problems, proper identification of the fly species, determining the population of flies in that particular location, employing two or more control measures and following up with regular inspections to ensure effectiveness.

Sanitation: The first step to sanitize a property is to survey the area properly. It is important to ensure that the property maintains high hygiene standards and there are no traces of spillage, wet garbage, and unclean organic and decaying matter inside the property. These attract Fly and act as the major food source. The source of Food and water / beverages makes the fly to come and breed in any property. It can be as small as a food particle or a drop of beverage fallen on the carpet or floor and not cleaned properly attract flies and act as a source of food for them. Fly being a day time active insect starts looking for such food material and hence are normally seen on the floor area early mornings.

Environment Hygiene: Houseflies breed on decaying matter like garbage dump, waste spillage material dump, fruit and fruit extracts dump, animal dung etc. Such sources with high moisture content act as a ground for flies to lay eggs and start breeding. Theoretically 1 kg of manure can give rise to 10,000 flies. Ignoring these breeding areas and targeting only adult flies will therefore not solve the problem. The solution to this is to remove such breeding grounds from the vicinity of the property.

Prevention: To prevent the entry of houseflies inside the property, all the openings should be taken care with double door system or with suitable air curtains. Fly screens can also be used. It is very important to screen back entrance and receiving areas. Using split curtains and air curtains can do this. If air curtains are installed, then the flow or air direction should be checked wherein the direction of air should blow outwards. The Fly attractants or Insecticutors used for fly trapping should be checked for its effectiveness and should be maintained by periodically checking for the bulb used, glue pad replacement (if it is a trap), cleaning of the wire mesh and collection tray (if it is a killer).

Control Mechanism

Following methods of fly control can be implemented to control flies:

Spraying Method: Safe and odourless chemicals available, which can be sprayed inside the premises with the help of professionals. Spray treatment can be done both inside and outside the property and should be allowed to dry for at least 30 mins – 1 hour. It can be sprayed on walls, pots, artificial plants, ventilation blinds, underneath tables and chairs, or any other fly resting areas. This is done once in 15-30 days depending on the infestation. Spraying is typically done early in the morning.

Baiting Technology: Fly control baits are available in ready to use granular formulation. Baiting technology is recommended for use as loose bait or inside the bait station. These baits can be used outside areas of the passages, corridors, breeding areas, garbage dump, back yard, besides the back entrance and front entrance areas once a day. This is absolutely safe against non-targeted species. The attraction of the bait is high outdoors than indoors where centralized AC keeps conditioning the air.

Fly Maggot Control Methods- New generation products are available for fly Maggot control which can be used on garbage dumps, waste spillage material, animal dung material dump (manure) etc. This product is absolutely safe for the non targeted species (domestic animals and birds feeding on garbage). Depending on the nature of the breeding site, it should be used on a regular frequency of 15-30 days. This will bring the potential population of flies. Killing only adult flies and neglecting breeding area is like fighting a battle with 1 man army.

Fly management has to be seen as an integrated approach rather than just depending on pest control measures alone. Normally, multiple methods, coupled together with proper implementation strategy can yield better management of flies.

The author is Sr. Sector Manager – Intergrated Pest Management and Poultry at Diversy India Pvt. Ltd.