Ammonia and carbon dioxide were evaluated as attractants in canopy traps for Hybomitra lasiophthalma (Macquart). Ammonia-baited traps collected 2.5 times as many flies as did unbaited traps (33.27 versus 12.93 per trap per day). Over 45 times as many flies were captured in carbon dioxide-baited traps as in unbaited traps (1,630.64 versus 35.82 per trap per day). Both ammonia and carbon dioxide are effective attractants for H. lasiophthalma.

The attraction of females of six species of tabanids to stanchioned Jersey bullocks, unbaited canopy traps, and canopy traps baited with either octenol (1-octen-3-ol), ammonia (NH4OH), a combination of ammonia and octenol, or 5 kg of dry ice (CO2) was studied. A randomized Latin square design (treatments x sites x days) was used. Species diversity and number of flies captured in canopy traps unbaited or baited with octenol, ammonia, or the combination of octenol and ammonia did not differ significantly. Females of Tabanus americanus Forster, T. fuscicostatus Hine, and T. lineola F. were captured more frequently in CO2-baited canopy traps than on Jersey bullocks, but the reverse was observed for females of Leucotabanus annulatus (Say). The number of females of T. pallidescens Philip and T. wilsoni Pechuman collected from CO2-baited canopy traps and bullocks did not differ significantly.

Four species of each of the genera Chrysops, Hybomitra, and Tabanus were collected while feeding on cattle in southwestern Quebec; T. quinquevittatus accounted for 75% of the tabanids. The more abundant species had a flight period of at least 5 weeks. Nearly 90% of the specimens were positive for fructose as determined by the cold anthrone test.

The dusky-footed woodrat, Neotoma fuscipes Baird is a natural reservoir of the Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi Johnson, Schmid, Hyde, Steigerwalt & Brenner, in California. To investigate the potential of host-targeted insecticide to control the tick vectors of B. burgdorferi, permethrin-impregnated or untreated cotton balls were distributed in metal cylinders as potential nesting material adjacent to 95 woodrat houses in chaparral-covered rangeland. Laboratory experiments demonstrated that adult woodrats would enter the cylinders and construct nests from permethrin-treated or untreated cotton. The residual concentration of permethrin did not vary significantly during an 11-mo period and remained > 60% of the registered insecticidal formulation (7.5% [AI] by cotton weight). The abundance of 4 species of ticks (Ixodes neotomae Cooley; the western blacklegged tick I. pacificus Cooley & Kohls; I. woodi Bishopp; and the Pacific Coast tick, Dermacentor occidentalis Marx) infesting woodrats was similar in the treatment and control areas. Although > 90% of the cotton disappeared from the metal cylinders in both areas, examination of 8 active woodrat houses revealed that small amounts of cotton had been incorporated into the nest cups of only 25%. In contrast, the abundance of the flea Orchopeas sexdentatus (Baker) decreased significantly in the treatment area only. Spirochetes were not detected in 168 adult O. sexdentatus fleas that had fed on spirochetemic woodrats, which demonstrates that this flea is an inefficient host of B. burgdorferi. We conclude that the use of permethrin-impregnated cotton as potential nesting material is ineffective for controlling ticks associated with the dusky-footed woodrat in brushlands, but this methodology may be useful for reducing populations of sylvatic fleas.

Application of UV Killer, a commercially available product which reduced ultraviolet reflectance from cloth fabrics, increased the catch of tabanids in canopy traps by 24% and in CO2-baited traps by 30%. Catch decreased as ultraviolet reflectance increased during the experiment.