Monitoring House Fly, Musca domestica (Diptera: Muscidae), Populations in Caged-Layer Poultry Houses Using a Baited Jug-Trap 1

Abstract

A baited jug-trap for sampling house fly populations is described. We found trapping of house flies to be most effective at the roof peak in a narrow caged-layer poultry house and ca. 1 m above the manure in a high-rise poultry house, using the jug-trap baited with Super Golden Malrin®, containing 0.025% 2-(1-methylethoxy) phenol methylcarbamate, 0.04% 2, 2-dichlorovinyl dimethyl phosphate, and 0.025% (Z)-9-tricosene. Yellow painted jug-traps caught more house flies than red, green, blue, black, or white. The period of greatest fly catches in the trap was between 1200 and 1700 EST. Traps baited with the slowrelease synthetic house fly attractant (88% fishmeal, 5% trimethylamine hydrochloride, 5% ammonium sulfate, 1% indole, and 1% linoleic acid) caught fewer flies than traps baited with Improved Golden Malrin®, containing 1.0% methomyl ( S -methyl N -[methylcarbamoyl] oxy) thioacetimidate and 0.025% (Z)-9-tricosene, or Super Golden Malrin, and caught more flies than traps baited with Golden Malrin®, containing 0.093% 2, 2-dichlorovinyl dimethyl phosphate and 0.25% 0, 0 -dimethyl 0 -(2, 4, 5-trichlorophenyl) phosphorothioate, when tested in a narrow caged-layer poultry house. Indole was found to be the most attractive chemical in the synthetic formulation and ammonium sulfate decreased the attractiveness of the formulation. We advocate the use of a white, translucent jug-trap baited with 25 g of Improved Golden Malrin and hung at the level of the upper cages as a simple, practical method for monitoring house fly populations in caged-layer houses.