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.

Veterinary and medical entomologists who are involved in research on pest control often need to perform dose–response bioassays and analyze the results. This article is meant as a beginner’s guide for doing this and includes instructions for using the free program R for the analyses. The bioassays and analyses are described using previously unpublished data from bioassays on house flies, Musca domestica Linnaeus (Diptera: Muscidae), but can be used on a wide range of pest species. Flies were exposed topically to beta-cyfluthrin, a pyrethroid, or exposed to spinosad or spinetoram in sugar to encourage consumption. LD₅₀ values for beta-cyfluthrin in a susceptible strain were similar regardless of whether mortality was assessed at 24 or 48 h, consistent with it being a relatively quick-acting insecticide. Based on LC₅₀ values, spinetoram was about twice as toxic as spinosad in a susceptible strain, suggesting a benefit to formulating spinetoram for house fly control, although spinetoram was no more toxic than spinosad for a pyrethroid-resistant strain. Results were consistent with previous reports of spinosad exhibiting little cross-resistance. For both spinosad and spinetoram, LC₅₀ values were not greatly different between the pyrethroid-resistant strain and the susceptible strain.

Lucilia sericata is a facultative ectoparasite causing fly strike or myiasis in warm‐blooded vertebrates. It is controlled by traps or insecticides, but both have drawbacks and alternative ways of control are urgently needed. Essential oils (EOs) of vetiver (Chrysopogon zizanioides), cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum), and lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) and their blends (OBs); OB1 (2 ml of each EO plus 4 ml of sunflower oil as a carrier) and OB2 (2 ml of each EO) were tested. Oils were tested at 5% for deterrence assays, and a dose response assay 0.01‐0.6%, was conducted to determine forced‐contact toxicity. We evaluated the efficacy of oils as oviposition deterrents, repellents/attractants, and their effects on mortality and longevity of adult L. sericata. Our data indicated that 0.2% EOs killed all flies by 5 min post‐treatment and that vetiver oil greatly deterred flies from the oviposition medium and reduced adult longevity. Sunflower oil repelled all flies from ovipositing and greatly reduced the lifespan of treated adults. The blend of the four oils (OB1) had the greatest repellent effect on the flies. EOs have insecticidal, repellent, and oviposition‐deterrent activities against L. sericata that could be used for suppression of blow fly populations.

Pyriproxyfen is an insect growth regulator with juvenile hormone-like activity that has potential uses for dipterans that are difficult to manage wit

House flies (Musca domestica) infected with Musca domestica salivary gland hypertrophy virus (MdSGHV) were found in fly populations collected from 12 out of 18 Danish livestock farms that were surveyed in 2007 and 2008. Infection rates ranged from 0.5% to 5% and averaged 1.2%. None of the stable flies (Stomoxys calcitrans), rat-tail maggot flies (Eristalis tenax) or yellow dung flies (Scathophaga stercoraria) collected from MdSGHV-positive farms displayed characteristic salivary gland hypertrophy (SGH). In laboratory transmission tests, SGH symptoms were not observed in stable flies, flesh flies (Sarcophaga bullata), black dump flies (Hydrotaea aenescens), or face flies (Musca autumnalis) that were injected with MdSGHV from Danish house flies. However, in two species (stable fly and black dump fly), virus injection resulted in suppression of ovarian development similar to that observed in infected house flies, and injection of house flies with homogenates prepared from the salivary glands or ovaries of these species resulted in MdSGHV infection of the challenged house flies. Mortality of virus-injected stable flies was the highest among the five species tested. Virulence of Danish and Florida isolates of MdSGHV was similar with three virus delivery protocols, as a liquid food bait (in sucrose, milk, or blood), sprayed onto the flies in a Potter spray tower, or by immersiion in a crude homogenate of infected house flies. The most effective delivery system was immersion in a homogenate of ten infected flies/ml of water, resulting in 56.2% and 49.6% infection of the house flies challenged with the Danish and Florida strains, respectively.

Attack rates, progeny production, sex ratios, and host utilization efficiency of Muscidifurax raptorellus (Kogan and Legner) (Hymenoptera: Pteromalid