Fly Parasite- What Are They and How Do They Work
Fly Parasites are commonly referred to a Fly
Predators of Fly Parasitoids and are one of nature’s
methods of fly control. Fly parasites are very tiny
wasps that are naturally occurring in nature, mainly
nocturnal, and do not pose any harmful influence on
humans, livestock or pets. While other organisms attack
adult flies (e.g. birds, spiders, etc) the fly parasites
target the developing flies. Under circumstances
normally observed in nature, these natural controls keep
a balance in the fly population. It is when we
artificially increase the concentration of animals that
we provide an ideal breeding environment for fly
reproduction and the natural controls cannot keep up to
the explosion in the fly population.
Fly Parasites have a unique and highly effective
method to locate their prey. The adult females fly about
searching for a fly pupa and when they sense a fly pupa
they will burrow up to six inches into the manure or
compost in order to reach the prey. They then deposit
their eggs into the fly pupae and the young fly
parasites will consume the fly pupae as nourishment
while developing into adult fly parasites. Each female
will lay between 50 to 100 eggs depending on the
species. These adults emerge fully grown and ready to
search out more fly pupae and star the reproductive
cycle again. Normally this cycle takes 18-21 days
depending on the species of Fly Parasite and
temperature. The adult fly parasites also consume some
of the fly pupae as a food source thus providing a
secondary method of reducing the potential fly
population.
|
Life cycle of
Fly Parasites |
 |
Fly Parasites provide an environmentally safe,
economically effective and long term fly control method
by interrupting the reproductive cycle of the pest fly.
Studies in agriculture operations have reported stable
fly reductions of over 90% using fly parasites and
effective suppression of fly populations within 30 days.
Why Are Fly Parasites So Effective?
Reliance on the use of insecticides alone for fly
control seldom provides a satisfactory solution. In the
past chemical sprays or fogs have been used a common
method to control fly populations. These chemicals
provide a short term relief as they kill the adult
flies, but after a couple of days the problem has
returned. The chemicals only attack the adult flies and
as only 20% of the fly population at any one time is
adults, the chemicals are only targeting a very small
portion of the fly population. The remainder of the fly
population in under the manure or compost in the
developing stages and is not killed by the chemicals. In
fact many of the developing flies ingest the chemicals
on the manure and will form a resistance to the
chemicals. The net result is that farmers have to apply
stronger doses of the chemicals and have less success in
knocking down the population. Furthermore, there is
increasing information on the adverse effects of these
pesticides on humans and the environment.
This is not to discount the importance of controlling
the adult flies, but we prefer the use of fly baits, fly
traps and fly strips, as they do not have an adverse
effect on the fly parasites, humans or the environment.
Fly parasites on the other hand do not have any
adverse influences on humans or the environment and the
key is that they target the developing flies at the
pupal stage. These developing stages comprise the
remaining 80% of the fly population and the developing
flies are killed before they become adults and do not
have a chance to lay any eggs.
Studies on poultry and swine operations have
demonstrated that fly parasites are very effective.
Published research states that fly parasites completely
suppressed populations of houseflies within 30 days and
that a 90% reduction was observed in the population of
the common biting stable fly.
Please call us for a no obligation discussion on a
customized fly control program. We are not after a fast
sell, but rather we hope to have a long-term satisfied
customer. Our business has grown across Canada virtually by
word of mouth and we welcome all enquires. Our commitment to
you is to create the BEST, MOST ECONOMICAL AND LONG-TERM
BIOLOGICAL FLY CONTROL PROGRAM
|
