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15 October 2020 Review of Methods to Monitor House Fly (Musca domestica) Abundance and Activity
Alec C. Gerry
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Abstract

The house fly is a ubiquitous pest commonly associated with animal facilities and urban waste. When present in large numbers, house flies can negatively impact humans and animals through nuisance and the transmission of pathogens. Since the development of fly traps and sticky papers to capture flies in the late 1800s, these and other methods have been used as a means to monitor change in house fly density or fly activity over time. Methods include substrate sampling to record density of immature flies, visual observations of adult fly activity, instantaneous counts of landing or resting flies, accumulation of adult flies on/in traps, or accumulation of fly fecal and regurgitation spots deposited by flies onto white cards. These methods do not estimate true house fly density, but rather provide an index of house fly activity that is related to both fly density and the frequency of individual fly behavior (e.g., frequency of flight, landing events) and which is likely more predictive of negative impacts such as nuisance and pathogen transmission. Routine monitoring of house fly activity is a critical component of a house fly management program. Fly activity should be held to a level below a predetermined activity threshold (‘action threshold') above which negative impacts are anticipated to occur. This article is a review of methods utilized for monitoring house fly (Diptera: Muscidae) activity.

© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.
Alec C. Gerry "Review of Methods to Monitor House Fly (Musca domestica) Abundance and Activity," Journal of Economic Entomology 113(6), 2571-2580, (15 October 2020). https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/toaa229
Received: 6 July 2020; Accepted: 29 August 2020; Published: 15 October 2020
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KEYWORDS
density
precision
surveillance
threshold
trap
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