Evaluation of Different Monitoring Methods for Musca domestica L. 1758 (Diptera: Muscidae) Indoor Population

Abstract

Summary The housefly Musca domestica is a cosmopolitan insect nuisance pest, also known as a carrier of numerous pathogens both to humans and animals. Animal farms, as a very important source of house flies, simultaneously allow for all stages of their development. Having vast quantities of constantly present manure, pig units represent perfect environment for house fly breeding. This fact, coupled with the known resistance to majority of available insecticides, creates difficulties in house fly control. The present study was performed to evaluate different types of monitoring methods for indoor use: (a) spot deposit records on the cardboard; (b) fly trappings by: glue coated cardboard; (c) sticky fly strips; (d) yellow sticky cards; (e) visual records of flies on the cardboard. This study provided a clear differentiation of efficacy/usefulness of the tested methods for various house fly densities. In animal breeding units or other areas with very abundant fly population, less sensitive methods (traps are less efficient) should be selected. For these circumstances, glued cardboard or yellow sticky cards should be chosen. The “more sensitive” methods, spot cards and sticky fly strips, should be used for lower abundance of the fly population. Except for this purpose, these highly sensitive methods should be selected also in the areas where the flies should not be tolerated at any density. Although the levels of the observed fly activity significantly differ from each other, in the majority of cases they depict the similar trend of the population dynamics and relative density. The only exception to the rule was the visual method, which could not reflect the changes in the population density in the current study.