Fly Parasites for Biological Control

FLY SEASON is here!

You may have just a few flies around now, but with warmer weather coming, the numbers will increase exponentially. One female fly can lay upwards of 900 eggs in a month. If you have 1000 flies laying 900 eggs, you’ll have close to a million flies within a month, and it keeps going!

Several studies have shown negative economic impacts on agricultural operations including lower meat, milk and egg production that are directly attributed to fly related stress on the livestock. As well, biting flies can transmit blood borne diseases and pathogens.

Fly control is a three step process: manure management, biological control and chemical control. Combined, these three components have proven to reduce fly populations to tolerable levels or lower.

Manure Management:

Female flies require moist manure to lay their eggs. If there is a ‘crust’, the fly will not lay eggs but instead, search for a more suitable location. Keeping your manure in a pile reduces the surface area for flies to breed. Another method is to spread the manure thinly over fields. The manure dries out quickly and, if no moisture is present, the flies cannot reproduce.

Biological Control:

Scheduled releases of fly parasites help to eliminate developing fly larvae. The reduction in emerging flies is critical in breaking the reproduction cycle. The fewer the number of adults that hatch out equals fewer adults to lay eggs and fewer larvae to parasitize. Your fly problem is greatly reduced.
It is easier to prevent an increase in fly numbers than it is to get control of a well established fly population!