Fly Management: All-natural fungal pesticide developed to control flies
By By James D. Skinner Dr. James J. Arends and John R. Struck
Features Profiles ResearchersAll-natural fungal pesticide developed to control flies
The time when flies were deemed only a nuisance to employees or concerns about “speckled” eggs is long past. Today, fly problems, particularly periodic “explosions,” represent a major issue to producers. With urban communities encroaching on farm land, these home owners become active, vocal and litigious when confronted with a producer’s fly problem. In addition, recent research has indicated that flies may be the vector for the transmission of serious diseases.
GOOD BUGS REMAIN balEnce, a natural fungal pesticide, targets flies but not beneficial bugs. Maintaining dry manure (coning if necessary) also helps reduce flypopulations. |
The time when flies were deemed only a nuisance to employees or concerns about “speckled” eggs is long past. Today, fly problems, particularly periodic “explosions,” represent a major issue to producers. With urban communities encroaching on farm land, these home owners become active, vocal and litigious when confronted with a producer’s fly problem. In addition, recent research has indicated that flies may be the vector for the transmission of serious diseases.
For all of these reasons, it is imperative that poultry producers maintain a well-planned and executed insect management program to guard against fly problems. The challenge is to keep the poultry house in balance by employing proper manure management. Effective management keeps the manure dry to support the ability of the beneficial insects to control the flies. Dry manure, along with the use of an effective insecticide that kills flies while leaving the beneficial insects unharmed, is safe for the employees and leaves no chemical residue in the manure that adversely affects its desirability.
FLY LIFE CYCLE
The housefly, Musca Domestica Linnaeus is the principal fly pest. Adult females lay between 300 and 1,200 eggs in manure that is between 60 to 85 per cent moisture, wet feed, broken eggs, dead birds or any biological material that is decomposing. The eggs hatch within 12 to 24 hours. Larvae (maggots) need a moist organic environment and will not develop in a dry environment. Houseflies will develop throughout the year in poultry manure and develop and hatch dependent on the temperature. The warmer the larval environment, the faster the larvae develop to the pupae stage.
Flies progress through four stages of development – egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Larvae pass through three size changes before crawling to a drier area where they change into a resting stage – pupa – before emerging as adults. The larval and pupal stages may last from 10 to 70 days for houseflies depending upon temperature.
BENEFICIAL INSECTS
Beneficial insects such as Carnicops pumulio, the hister beetle, earwigs and parasitic wasps exist naturally in manure and eat fly eggs and larvae. Earwigs and a number of species of mites also eat fly eggs.
The role of these beneficial insects to control flies in a poultry house is of great importance to the fly management program. These insects are very sensitive to insecticides and the use of any broad-spectrum insecticide or larvacide in the house will potentially kill them. Pesticide used at cage level can drift and severely decrease beneficial insect numbers. As their numbers decrease, fly problems increase.
Beneficial insects need dry manure for reproduction while allowing them to be mobile as they search for fly eggs and larvae that serve as one of their primary food sources. Dry manure allows beneficial insect populations to function at their maximum for increased fly control.
MANURE MANAGEMENT
Flies multiply rapidly and uncontrollably in a wet environment; beneficial insects that eat fly eggs and larvae live only in dry manure – the drier the manure the smaller the breeding ground for the flies and the larger the breeding area for the beneficial insects that eat the flies. Managing the moisture level in the manure requires consistent ventilation.
INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT
Long-term fly management using Integrated Pest Mangement (IPM) principles will provide the best control at the least cost. This type of program uses all available options to reduce adult flies and, therefore, fly breeding, while promoting beneficial species. It requires that manure be managed all year and that the control program is functioning year round. It begins with maintaining manure as dry as possible all year and utilization of an insecticide that kills only flies and leaves the beneficial insects unharmed. This promotes beneficial insect populations which, if maintained at a high enough level, maintains the fly population at acceptable levels with little added effort.
CURRENT TREATMENTS
Fly control has typically been based upon the use of chemical sprays and/or larva-cides to kill the adult and larval stages of the fly. Choosing this approach should be the last choice. Once this choice is made and applications have started, the producer will be required to continue to treat three to seven times a week until the manure can be cleaned out of the building. This can be a very expensive and labour-intensive program.
Furthermore, flies may develop resistance to pesticides, particularly larvacides. The initial effectiveness of pesticides and larvacides to kill flies may be lost, leading to increased fly problems and/or increased use of chemical pesticides.
In addition, there are certain risks for employees associated with the use of chemical pesticides. These risks are greatest during handling and mixing of concentrates prior to application.
A selective entomopathogen fungus, Beauveria bassiana, that infects adult flies but is safe for beneficial species, humans, poultry and the environment has been developed into a product called balEnce™. This product was developed by JABB of the Carolinas in the U.S.
A solution of balEnce is sprayed into the house on a regular basis, one to four times per week. Once balEnce is released into the manure storage pit area of the house, the spores are picked up by the fly adults where the spores germinate and enter into the flies’ bodies. The fungus grows until it has consumed and killed the fly. This process normally requires three to five days.
The key advantage of using balEnce is that it does not harm any of the beneficial species enabling these species to have their full impact on controlling the fly population and become a significant part of your IPM and fly management programs. Use of a fungal pesticide such as balEnce represents the first time that adult fly management has been possible without negatively impacting the natural, beneficial insect segment of a fly management program.
balEnce can be used at any temperature, and can thus be used in a winter control program to eliminate fly breeding in the cold months and the spring fly “explosion.” balEnce has been approved by Health Canada’s Pesticide Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) and the distributor, Terragena Inc., anticipates that it will be available in late April.
James D. Skinner is president and CEO of Terregena Inc., distributor of balEnce. He can be contacted by telephone at 919-789-0306, or by e-mail: jim@jskinner.com.
Dr. James J. Arends is president and CEO of JABB of the Carolinas and the developer of balEnce.
John R. Struck is a principal of Terregena and a consultant to the poultry industry in the U.S.
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