Author
Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only Publication Acceptance Date: 6/15/2012 Publication Date: N/A Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: N/A Technical Abstract: The stable fly, Stomoxys calcitrans, is the most serious pest of livestock in the USA. Management of stable flies is difficult because of the flies' behavior and because the fly can disperse over long distances. Fiberglass traps have been used, primarily for research purposes, for many years, but new visually attractive traps have been developed and some are being sold for personal use. Several of these traps have been found to be as good as or better than the existing fiberglass traps. The reason is partially because of the new adhesive-coated foam wraps sold with the new traps. Pesticide-treated blue and black cloth targets, adapted from the targets made for tse-tse control in East Africa, are being sold commercially in the flat configuration. However, tests in the US have shown that the cloth targets can be effective when flat or in a cylindrical conformation. Plus target size may not be as important as previously believed. In the original development of the targets, the blue pigment was very important to its effectiveness, however subsequent tests have shown that the black cloth may be much more important than previously suspected. In fact, targets that are entirely blue or entirely black attract numbers of stable flies that are not significantly different from those attracted by targets that are both blue and black. The new traps and the treated targets may be suitable for use in stable fly management programs. |