Nisus Corp.: Flies

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May 1, 2013

By Ron Schwalb, A.C.E., National Technical Manager

There are a number of fly species that may cause concern for you and your customers in a number of situations. For structural pest management, you may be called upon to control small flies developing indoors such as phorid flies, fruit flies and moth (drain) flies in commercial kitchens — or flies developing from outdoor areas such as house flies, bottle flies and other species that find their way into and around living areas.

The best fly control program is to go back to basics using the integrated pest management (IPM) techniques that we have learned for a variety of pest problems:

1. Inspection: Inspecting the location will give you a basis for your total control program. You will be able to determine conducive conditions that may be leading to fly population development. You may be able to find and identify the infesting fly species. You will also be able to determine sanitation requirements needed for control, exclusion techniques that may be needed, whether mechanical controls are needed and then the best control product and application required.

2. Sanitation: Cleaning and eliminating food sources for fly populations is critical for any control program to be successful. Most indoor pest flies need moist areas that contain organic food material for the larvae to feed and develop. Indoors, by cleaning garbage containers, floors and drains, and removing food materials from surfaces and debris out from under equipment, will help reduce potential fly populations. Outdoors, by moving Dumpsters away from the building and regularly cleaning the areas where food and organic material may accumulate will reduce potential fly populations.

3. Exclusion: Placing air curtains at doorways and proper screening will help keep outdoor populations from entering. Good maintenance, including repairing damaged floors and walls and caulking cracks and crevices, will help keep moisture and organic matter from building up.

4. Mechanical control: Insect light traps (ILTs) and pheromone traps can be used on many fly species indoors.

5. Chemical control: Outdoors, you may employ a fly bait out away from the structure, or topically applied baits or labeled residual products to control adult fly populations. You may also treat the inside floors of Dumpsters with a labeled liquid or borate product to control larvae development. For small fly control indoors, you might use a labeled soluble borate mopping solution to taint food sources in cracks and crevices, or use a labeled borate product to treat drains.

By incorporating basic IPM approaches, you can provide excellent service to your accounts.

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