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Treatment Countdown: Small Fly Pest Management
1 Jul, 2008 By: Austin Frishman Pest Management ProfessionalThe very headline indicates we're not sure what we are talking about. How small is small? How many different small flies are there? With this introduction, you know control will be difficult.
What is control? How many flies will a customer tolerate in the bar area? In the basement?
It's obviously important to know what fly you're dealing with and then find its breeding area. The latter, however, is not always possible. On some occasions, the breeding area is in inaccessible areas where the cost to rip out the wall and remove a large walk-in cooler isn't practical.
 Austin Frishman |
The following is a list of small fly pest management tips to help you tiptoe through the account and achieve the maximum management possible within a reasonable budget for customers:
1. Think small. Fly larvae need very little on which to survive. Small fly larvae need even less. It's not huge amounts of garbage that you are looking for.
2. Use a strong flashlight to look down floor drains and into dark goo. The strong light will cause the fly larvae to undulate and you can find them.
3. Breathe in deeply. Nobody said this is fun. But rancid odor will help you pinpoint a fly breeding area.
4. Stare off into space (air). You can sometimes see adults flying by.
5. Look outdoors nearby. Sometimes the flies are moving in from the exterior. Screens, air curtains and exterior residuals may be the answer, as well as improving sanitation.
6. Look for air drafts. Elevator pits are just one example. Drafts can often help show you where flies are coming from.
7. Check window ledges. Adult flies go to windows, so a ledge is a good indicator for relative numbers caught.
8. Study the trash flow. Watch how trash cans from within the account go to and from the trash bins. Each place where the cans are stored is a potential breeding area.
9. Store garbage and waste in sealed plastic bags in cold or cool storage. It has a dramatic, negative impact on flies.
10. Use mineral oil to cover goo in inaccessible areas. When you know flies are breeding in a spot you just can't get to, this practice will at least smother the larvae. Depending upon how often they wash the area down, it should last about a week. Do not use it in an area where people walk, though, as the floor will be very slippery and they will fall.
11. Place a clean plastic bag over a floor drain. Leave it overnight, then check whether any flies are caught inside the bag.
12. Watch when the employees wash a floor drain. See where the water runs. Often, the flies are breeding at the end of the run-off.
13. Sanitize. Incorporate the use of enzymes and foams to clean drains and other fly-breeding areas.
14. Check floor/wall junctures and for any water under loose floor tiles. These both are excellent fly breeding locations. Get down on your knees, press the tiles and see whether they ooze.
15. Construct a pipe or wedge to catch a drip and divert it directly into a drain. This avoids wetting the floor, and eliminates a fly breeding area.
16. Consider the condition of the sewer line. Breaks in a sewer line under the floor would create huge humpback (Phoridae) and drain fly (Psychodidae) populations. The only solution is going to be to crack open the floor and repair the pipes, as well as physically remove the contaminated soil. Some customers will never do it, so you're then left to trap as close to the source as possible.
17. Catch more flies with vinegar. A few drops of vinegar on a glue board will catch thousands of Phoridae flies.
18. Use, but don't rely solely on, insect light traps (ILTs). Not all flies react strongly to these lights, although the darker the area around the light, the more effective they are.
19. Go green. A lime-colored glue board will catch dark-winged fungus gnats.
20. (But not too green.) Look for coffee grinds saved by employees for organic material to pot live plants. This is an excellent breeding source for dark-winged fungus gnats.
In some cases, there is more money to be made in fly management than in cockroach control. Train employees in your company to become fly management specialists. Then go sell your knowledge.
Frishman, an industry consultant since 1967, is president of AMF Pest Management Services Inc., Boca Raton, Fla. Contact him at
mypmp@questex.com.
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