Autodissemination of pyriproxifen as a method for controlling the house fly Musca domestica

Authors: BIALE, HAIM - UNIVERSITY OF HAIFA; CHIEL, ELAD - UNIVERSITY OF HAIFA; Geden, Christopher - Chris

Submitted to: Journal of Pest Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/2/2019
Publication Date: 2/7/2019
Citation: Biale, H., Chiel, E., Geden, C.J. 2019. Autodissemination of pyriproxifen as a method for controlling the house fly Musca domestica. Journal of Pest Science. 92(3):1283-1292. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10340-019-01092-x.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10340-019-01092-x

Interpretive Summary: House fly, Musca domestica, control is a major challenge in animal agriculture. Pyriproxyfen (PPF) is an insect-growth regulator that prevents insect development beyond the pupal stage so that no adults emerge. In this paper, scientists with the University of Haifa (Israel) and USDA’s Medical, Agricultural, and Veterinary Entomology (Gainesville, FL) tested the feasibility of applying this insecticide using autodissemination methods, in which the flies themselves deliver PPF to their egg-laying sites. High-potency formulations were developed in the lab by mixing pure PPF with various solid (diatomaceous earth, corn starch) and liquid (acetone, corn oil) components. Flies were treated by passing them through walk-through stations where they would pick up the PPF on their tarsi (feet) and deposit it on egg-laying substrates. This concept worked well in lab and indoor cages experiment, but not in the field. Therefore, another concept was tested in which flies were actively coated with PPF and then released at different proportions. This concept was tested in lab experiments with various manure types in the USA and in Israel. Ten to twenty percent of PPF-coated flies were sufficient to get high control levels (~90%) in most of the tested manure types in the U.S. study. In the experiments in Israel, fly mortality was low-medium in cow manure whereas in poultry manure high mortality was observed already when ten percent of the flies were coated with PPF. We conclude that autodissemination of PPF using the “active coating” concept may be practical, depending on manure type, and should be further tested in the field.

Technical Abstract: House fly, Musca domestica, control is a major challenge in animal agriculture. Pyriproxyfen (PPF) is an insect-growth regulator that controls house flies effectively, and here we tested the feasibility of applying this insecticide using autodissemination methods, in which the flies themselves deliver PPF to their oviposition sites. First, we tried baiting flies to walk-through stations, where flies would collect PPF and distribute it. This concept worked well in lab and indoor cages experiment, but not in the field. Therefore, we tested another concept, of actively coating flies with PPF and then releasing them in different proportions. This concept was tested in lab experiments with various manure types in the USA and in Israel. Twenty percent of PPF-coated flies were sufficient to get high control levels (~90%) in most of the tested manure types in the U.S. study. In the experiments in Israel, fly mortality was low-medium in cow manure whereas in poultry manure high mortality was observed already when ten percent of the flies were coated with PPF. We conclude that autodissemination of PPF using the “active coating” concept may be practical, depending on manure type, and should be further tested in the field.