Pest Management Professional, March 2014

dos donts DIPTEROLOGY Dr Stuart Mitchell t Technical Editor Do the applied Dipterology and dont let a house flying infection contaminate your facility As a medically significant pest the house fly HF Musca domestica must be eliminated though an environmentally benign process of integrated pest management IPM Dont cut corners with the IPM which can be mechanistically defined as inspection and investigation identification establishing threshold levels implementing two or more control measures cultural physical mechanical biorational and chemical and evaluating effectiveness Do recognize en masse adult HFs often indicate the existence of a focal reproduction site and refuge Dont forget water Moisture is critical as a base to larval nutrients Do methodically inspect all drainage systems Inspect for micro areas on washed floor surfaces where residues dynamically amass beneath cooking lines refrigerators machinery and various equipment Dont allow debris to accumulate Inspect all probable locations where vegetable or animal materials accumulate Do inspect elevator pits under loading docks in or behind pallets and in waste receptacles Dont ignore spotting An HF can produce 16 to 21 spots on surfaces in 24 hours mostly saliva HF ingests liquid food HF produces saliva together with gut contents lighter spots HF saliva is rich in digestive enzymes and undigested matter HF saliva contains bacteria viruses and protozoa HF masses a sticky bolus round mass with forelegs HF sucks bolus back into the gut HF might defecate to reduce body weight for flight darker spots Do use mandatory insect light traps ILTs to provide critical HF information for trends analyses Validates the species Validates HF population pressures increases that prompt a change of control strategy Validates seasonal HF fluctuations Validates plausible HF refuge foci Validates environmental hygiene deficits PMP Dr Mitchell D O Ph D M P H B C E a board certified physician and entomologist is principal technical specialist for PestWest Environmental as well as PMPs Technical Editor He can be reached at docmitchell@ northcoastmedia net or 515 333 8923 most wanted DIPTEROLOGY Photo courtesy of and copyrighted by Gene White pmimages@ earthlink net Dr Stuart Mitchell t Technical Editor En masse adult house flies often indicate the existence of a focal reproductive site D ipterology is the study of true flies in the order Diptera from the Greek di or two and ptera or wings One must be a dipterologist to develop a house fly HF Musca domestica pest profile a behavioral and investigative tool to assist pest management professionals PMPs to accurately predict and profile the pests characteristics Cosmopolitan synanthropic associated with humans and multivoltine many generations the HF is essentially a flying infection Its about 016 to 031 in long with four thoracic longitudinal stripes Adults are particularly drawn to disease containing organic media Occuring in the foregut HF starch digestion occurs via salivary amylase enzyme converting starch to malt sugar The digestion of carbohydrates occurs on midgut cell surfaces via membrane bound maltase Low pH acidity or alkalinity of a solution on a scale of 0 to 14 where 7 acidity 7 neutrality and 7 alkalinity or acidity within the midgut usually kills bacteria within ingested media Trypsin breaks proteins works in the midgut With chaetiferous covered with hairs concealment the HFs bodily exterior provides massive surface area for pathogenic loads The hazardous HF is a mechanical disease transmitter of Salmonella and Shigella PMP 86 March 2014 Pest Management Professional www mypmp net