House Fly (Diptera: Muscidae): Biology, Pest Status, Current Management Prospects, and Research Needs

Abstract

The house fly, Musca domestica L. (Diptera: Muscidae), is a global pest of humans and animals that carries scores of pathogens and costs up to $1 billion per year in the United States alone. Information is reviewed on recognition, distribution, biology, dispersal, and associations with microbes. Particular challenges of managing flies in different animal systems are discussed for swine, poultry, dairy cattle, beef feedlot, and equine operations. Effective fly management requires diligent monitoring and integration of cultural control, especially manure management, with mechanical control, traps, conservation or augmentative biological control, and judicious use of insecticides. House fly is notorious for developing insecticide resistance and its resistance status is summarized as of August 2020. Several critical research needs are identified. Monitoring systems and nuisance/action thresholds need improvement. Faster-killing strains and better formulations are needed to integrate pathogens into Integrated Pest management (IPM) programs. The use of parasitoids remains an inexact science with many questions remaining about species selection and release rates. New attractants are needed for use in traps and attract-and-infect/kill strategies. Screening of new active ingredients for toxicity should continue, including a rigorous assessment of essential oils and other botanicals. Rising global temperatures may affect the balance of the fly with natural enemies. An understanding of the fly microbiome may reveal unknown vulnerabilities, and much remains to be learned about how flies acquire, retain, and transmit human and animal pathogens. System-specific research is also needed to tailor fly IPM programs to individual animal systems, especially in organic and free-range animal production.

Effects of Insect Formulated Feeds on Performance and Nutrient Retention Characteristics of Caged Cobb Broilers

“…These insects are highly abundant in Southern Nigeria, probably due to the favourable environmental factors that supported their abundance and this informed their utilization in feed meals. APWs are locally consumed in the region while houseflies and cockroaches are abundant as nuisance pests (Ojianwuna, 2014;Ebenebe and Okpoko, 2015;Geden et al, 2021). Overall, these varied results in growth performances and nutrient retention between different feed trials might be due to differences in the life stages of insect ingredients used.…”

Chitosan diet alters the microbiome of adult house flies

“…The adult house fly is a vector of numerous pathogens of humans (Stoffolano, 2019) with costs of $1 billion per year in the U.S. (Geden et al, 2021). Most epidemics involving human pathogens are transmitted via biotic factors and disease vectors including insects (Bahrndorff et al 2017).…”

“…However, the maintenance of sticky traps can be an inconvenience and does not completely deter disease vectors. In a major review of the current management strategies and research needs, Geden et al (2021) stressed two major points: screening new active ingredients for toxicity and the need to avoid the widespread resistance issue of the fly to nearly every insecticide currently on the market.…”

Effect of Secondary Metabolite Crude of Metarhizum anisopliea Fungus on the Second Larval Stage of the Housefly Musca domestica

“…Pathogens which are transferred by M. domestica may cause cholera, anthrax, food poisoning, typhoid, diarrhea and shigellosis 2 . House fly is considered as a wide separate and a dangerous insect due to its characteristics which are facultative diapauses characteristics such as broad distribution, and high reproductive capacity leading to the adaptation of various agroecological habitats and it has become a primary pest, through its vomits or excreta and legs, it acts as a mechanical vector for disease transmission through contaminated water and food 3 The common insecticides pyrethroids, spinosad, pyrethrins, dichlorvos, imidacloprid and cyantraniliprole, are used in house fly control 4 . Due to the dangers and hazards of chemical pesticides accumulating in the environment and being transmit into food, which kill untargeted insects, the world has resorted to using alternative pesticides, such as physical and biological control.…”