Microbial control of filth flies using fungal, viral, and bacterial agents

Authors: Geden, Christopher - Chris

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/28/2018
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Abstract only.

Technical Abstract: Filth flies such as house flies (Musca domestica) and stable flies (Stomoxys calcitrans) are two of the most important pests of animal production throughout the world. House fly is especially problematic because it can transmit microbial agents of a myriad of human and animal disease and it is difficult to control with insecticides because of resistance problems. Most of the research on filth fly biological control has focused on parasitic wasps that attack the fly in the pupal stage, but there is an urgent need to develop agents to target other life stages. Salivary gland hypertrophy virus is an interesting pathogen that infects adult house flies and renders them sterile. Efforts to develop this pathogen as a practical BC agent have been stymied by the efficiency of the fly’s peritrophic matrix to resist per os infection. Fungal pathogens, especially Beauveria bassiana, are promising and some are now available as commercial products. B. bassiana can be combined with artificial sweeteners to make a bait that does not give the fly a “free” sugar meal. When attempts were made to synergize B. bassiana by combining it with bacterial pathogens, combinations with Pseudomonas protegens were more effective against adult flies than either pathogen alone, whereas the addition of Serratia marcescens and Photorhabdus temperata had little effect. Pseudomonas protegens also has potential as a larvicide, especially against stable fly larvae. Some of this activity is due to a toxin produced by P. protegens that is effective on its own.