Mexican Fruit Fly Anastrepha ludens	Fargo ARS Researchers: Roger A. Leopold Joseph P. Rinehart	New World Screwworm Cochliomyia hominivorax
Mediterranean Fruit Fly Ceratitis capitata	Links to additional information:   Glassy-winged Sharpshooter Mediterranean Fruit Fly	Glassy-winged Sharpshooter Homalodisca coagulata

The current method for maintaining most insects used in control programs is by continuous culture. The ability to place insects in storage, such as those insects used in large-scale release projects, provides program managers with the means to eliminate the costs of continuously rearing back-up and founder strains and strains selected for special characteristics.   For researchers generating numerous insect stocks while investigating molecular and traditional genetic techniques, storage methodology also furnishes a means to reduce rearing costs, eliminate cross-contamination of strains, and prevent catastrophic loss.   Increasing insect shelf-life can also benefit area-wide control programs.   IPM programs often involve complex strategies where the release of mass-produced insects needs to be precisely timed.   Using storage technology, insect availability to consumers can be improved by synchronizing a specific developmental stage for peak release and provide flexibility and efficiency in shipping insects to the release site.   For long-term storage, the use of embryo and germ cell preservation in liquid nitrogen are the methods of choice.   For short storage periods, preservation of large numbers of insects, and banking of post embryonic stages, placing insects in some type of dormant state is indicated.