IPM for Flies in Schools

Introduction

Many species of flies can be problems in schools. Each kind of fly has a distinct breeding site inside or outside the school building. In order to control pest flies, it is necessary to know which fly is causing the problem and where it is breeding. Common pest flies encountered in schools can be identified by characteristics.

Garbage and Manure-Breeding Flies

Identification and Biology

Flies such as house flies, dump flies, blow flies, and blue and green bottle flies which breed in food wastes (garbage) and/or animal feces are generally referred to as "filth flies."

Sometimes flies are confused with wasps; however, flies have two wings, while wasps and all other winged insects have four wings arranged in two pairs. Wasps, unlike flies, fold their wings alongside their bodies when at rest. Most pest wasps are colorfully marked with yellow, red, black, and white, and have narrowly constricted waists. Generally, wasps are less likely to come indoors, are aggressive in their flight around foods, (particularly sweets) and are larger than filth flies. Filth flies are not aggressive and do not bite.

Filth flies pass through four distinct stages in their life cycle: egg, larva (maggot), pupa, and adult. Adult female filth flies look for moist places with the right smell to lay their eggs. This can be in food waste in a garbage can or dumpster, in dog or cat feces, in dead animals, in kitchen drains, in grass clippings allowed to rot in a pile, and even in moist soil that is mixed with garbage. The larva hatches from the egg and grows until it is ready to form a puparium (a kind of cocoon) from which an adult fly will emerge. Once the adult fly emerges, it doesn't grow any larger; small flies do not grow into larger flies.

Damage

Flies that invade cafeterias and kitchens are not only a nuisance, they also present a health hazard because they can contaminate food, utensils, and surfaces.

Detection and Monitoring

It is important to correctly identify the problem flies and pinpoint their breeding sites. Some of their characteristics can help you with identification, alternatively specimens can be taken to a county extension agent who should be able to assist in identification. If they cannot identif y the specimen they will be able to refer you to a person who can.

To collect specimens inside, use sticky flypaper or gather dead specimens from windowsills and light fixtures. Outside, trapping is one of the easiest methods of catching flies for identification (see the discussion below for trap construction, placement, and baits). If adult flies consistently avoid baited traps, it may indicate that the pest fly is not a filth fly.

Management Options

To manage flies, you must find and reduce breeding sites, install and maintain screens to keep flies out of buildings, kill those flies that do get inside with a fly swatter or flypaper, and reduce or eliminate the odors that attract flies.

In a school with a frequent waste removal program, it is very possible that few flies are breeding on the school property. It is more likely that odors from dumpsters, garbage cans, kitchens, and cafeterias are attracting flies to the school from the surrounding neighborhood. House flies and blow flies, the species that most commonly invade buildings, usually develop outside and follow odors into the building. They can also be pests when students or staff are eating outside. In schools where waste removal is infrequent, fly populations can be breeding at the waste collection site.

Habitat Modification

This is one of the most important aspects of fly control. Without controlling wastes and odors, it is impossible to control filth flies.

Food Waste

Other Garbage

Exterior Garbage Cans and Dumpsters

Animal Feces

Remove droppings promptly and put them into plastic bags that are sealed before disposal. Dog feces that dry quickly may attract adult flies with their odor but are unlikely to host many maggots. Droppings that remain damp because of humidity or rain can serve as an excellent breeding site.

Odor

Flies can detect odors over long distances. Smells of souring milk from hundreds of containers thrown in dumpsters can attract thousands of flies from the surrounding neighborhood. Storing garbage in sealed plastic bags and having cans and dumpsters cleaned and emptied frequently to eliminate odors is very important.

Removing pet feces also helps reduce attractive odors.

Flies attracted to open kitchen or cafeteria doors, or to dumpsters or garbage, will rest on nearby walls, eaves, and rafters. While resting, they leave fly specks, which have a strong fly-attracting odor. These brown- to cream-colored specks should be washed off with an odor-eliminating cleaner (a mild solution of borax and water can be particularly effective) otherwise they will continue to attract flies.

Physical Controls

Screens

Keeping adult flies out of sensitive areas is the most important control measure that can be undertaken. Install screens over windows, doors, and vent holes to prevent flies from entering buildings. Weather-stripping or silicone caulk can be used to insure a tight fit. Torn screens can be repaired with clear silicone caulk. Screen doors should be fitted with springs or automatic closing devices that close the screen door firmly after it is opened. External doors that cannot be screened should be fitted with automatic closing devices, and/or vertical strips of overlapping plastic that allow human access but prevent fly entry. "Air walls" that force air across openings are another alternative to screen doors.

Fly Swatters

In many instances, the old-fashioned fly swatter is the safest and quickest way to kill flies that have found their way into a room. Aim the fly swatter about 1 1/2 inches behind the fly, rather than directly at it, because research has shown that when a house fly takes off from a horizontal surface, it jumps upward and backward. Stiff plastic swatters seem to work better than wire-mesh ones. The fly's unblurred range of vision is about 1 1/2 feet, and the swatter can be moved to this distance before striking.

Flypaper

Sticky flypaper is effective at catching flies because it takes advantage of their natural habit of moving up to the ceiling to rest. It will take several days for a new strip of flypaper to start catching flies. Use a number of strips at a time and replace them when they are covered with flies or when they begin to dry out. Flypaper can be very useful in areas where there are too many flies to kill with a fly swatter, and where aesthetic appeal is not of primary importance. Flypaper is also a useful monitoring tool. Do not place flypaper or sticky strips above or near food preparation areas.

Fly Traps

Fly traps can be used to reduce adult fly populations, capture specimens for identification, and monitor the effectiveness of control programs. Fly traps are not toxic and are more selective than using insecticide. Traps need to be serviced regularly, appropriately placed, and repaired or replaced when damaged.

Trapping Flies Indoors

Electrocuting light traps are preferred for indoor use and can be used in food preparation and storage areas. Light traps will not work well in a room with many and/or large windows because the bright light coming in the windows is a much more powerful attractant than the comparatively weak light coming from the trap.

Contrary to the advice provided in some promotional literature for ultraviolet light or electrocutor traps, these traps should not be used outdoors. They are relatively non-selective in the insects they attract and will kill many more beneficial and innocuous insects than pests.

The following are key points to remember when using light traps for indoor flies:

Trapping Flies Outdoors

To capture flies outside, use traps with a screen cone suspended above the bait. These cone-type traps take advantage of the fly's habit of flying or walking toward light. Cone traps can be easily made from wood together with aluminum or plastic screening; use the dimensions in shown in the figure. Flies are attracted to the bait in the pan under the trap. Once the flies are under the trap, the brightest spot they see is the hole in the cone above them. They walk up through the hole and are trapped in the outer screen cage. Since flies are attracted to the light and it is always lighter above them, they do not find their way back out through the hole in the cone.

Cone Trap. Bait Pan is placed beneath the cone. Make sure the top edge of the bait pan is above the bottom edge of the trap. Top is also made of screening. Top should be hinged (to empty the trap) and closed with a hook and eye. Weather-stripping or a strip of foam or cloth glued to all four sides of the underside of the lid will prevent flies from squeezing out.

The following are key points to remember when trapping flies outdoors:

Trap placement is important:

Empty the trap when dead flies cover about one quarter of the cone. Do not release live flies that are in the trap. Kill them by enclosing the trap in a plastic bag and placing it in the sun. After the flies are dead, the contents of the trap should be poured into the plastic bag, sealed, and discarded in a dumpster or garbage can.

Do not clean the trap between uses. The smell of the millions of fly specks deposited on the screen is very attractive to flies.

Bait is important to the performance of the trap:

Fly Bait Recipes

Prevent excessive amounts of water from getting into the trap. If dead flies in the trap get wet and begin to rot, they will attract blow flies that will lay their eggs on the outside of the screen. When the tiny blow fly larvae hatch, they crawl through the screen to feast on the rotting mass of flies. This turns the trap into a messy breeding site for flies.

Chemical Controls

Except for odor-eliminating chemicals (such as borax) and baits, pesticides are not recommended for fly control.

Borates

Low concentrations of borax in water can be used to eliminate fly odors. This solution is particularly effective for removing fly specks from walls and eaves, and for rinsing out garbage cans and dumpsters. These solutions should not be used near ponds, streams, lakes, or other bodies of water, and should not be poured onto plants.

Fruit Flies, Cluster Flies, and Phorid Flies

Identification and Biology

Fruit Flies

Fruit flies are small flies commonly seen flying around ripe fruit, especially bananas. They are about 1/8 inch long and usually have red eyes. They lay their eggs near the surface of fermenting fruits and vegetables and other moist organic materials (including damp mops and cleaning rags as well as residues in bottles, cans, garbage disposals, and drains). Their life cycle, from egg through maggot and pupa to adult, takes little more than a week, and the number of flies that can be produced by a single piece of fruit is enormous. These flies are most often a problem in late summer and early fall, so careful storage of fruit and vegetables is necessary at these times of the year.

Cluster Flies

Cluster flies are larger and darker than house flies and have a distinctive yellowish color caused by the crinkled yellow hairs on their bodies. In the summer, cluster flies lay their eggs in soil where the maggots parasitize earthworms. Soil containing many earthworms is a common source of these flies. In the fall, the adults can be seen clustering on the south and west sides of buildings. As the weather gets cooler, these flies begin looking for sheltered places to spend the winter and often enter buildings.

Phorid Flies

The most common phorid fly, Megaselia scalaris, is small (1/16 to 1/8 inch) with a yellowish-brown body and light brown wings. The adults seem reluctant to fly, and they run around on walls, windows, and tables with a characteristic quick, jerky motion. The females are strongly attracted to odors and lay their eggs on or next to decaying material, both plant and animal. Food sources for the larvae are highly varied, from decomposing fruit, vegetables, and meat to open wounds in animals and people, and human and animal feces. The life cycle from egg to adult takes from 14 to 37 days.

Management Options

Fruit Flies

Fruit flies are most active from late summer through early fall. Problems with these flies can be avoided by ripening fruit in paper bags. Seal the bags by folding the top over several times and closing it with a paper clip or clothes pin. Once fruit is ripe, it should be stored in the refrigerator. Careful storage of fruit during the rest of the school year may not be necessary.

If an infestation is discovered, look for and remove the material that is breeding the flies. Begin by searching for the obvious sources, such as ripe fruit and vegetables, and then look at water from refrigerators, humidifiers, or sink drains that may be fermenting; spoiled animal food; or even damp, sour mops or rags. Areas outside the building near windows and doors should be checked for rotting vegetable matter. All breeding sources should be removed and disposed of in a sealed plastic bag. Make sure that screens and windows near food preparation areas are in good repair.

Fruit Fly Trap

To make a simple trap for fruit flies, combine 1 cup of vinegar, 2 cups of water, and 1 tablespoon of honey in a 2-liter soda bottle. Replace the cap, shake the mixture well, and punch holes in the side of the bottle above the liquid so the flies can get in. Using string, hang the bottle about 5 feet above the ground. Periodically, the dead flies should be strained out and the liquid reused.

Cluster Flies

Cluster flies are not as strong fliers as house flies and can easily be killed with a fly swatter or removed with a vacuum. Cluster flies can also be allowed to exit by opening the window. They can find their way into buildings through unscreened doors and windows, openings under siding and around roofs, unscreened ventilating spaces, cracks around windows, and holes where wires penetrate the walls of the building. During warm winter periods, cluster flies hidden in buildings become active and are attracted to windows.

Phorid Flies

Phorid flies breed in diverse sources of organic matter, so it may take considerable sleuthing to find their breeding sites. Once the site is found it must be thoroughly scraped, cleaned, and dried. Large infestations of these flies are often the result of broken drains or garbage disposals that allow organic matter to accumulate in out of the way places such as wall voids, under floors, in basements, or in the soil of crawl spaces.

Edited by: Timothy C. McCoy, University of Florida.
Originally written by: S. Darr, T. Drlik, H. Olkowski, and W. Olkowski

Photographs and Graphics: University of Florida

Published: June, 1998