How Fly Parasites Work
Adult flies can live approximately 30 days and the female can lay about 900 eggs in her lifetime. Once they become resistant to a chemical or class of chemicals, they can pass the resistance on to their young.
The female adult fly is ready to lay eggs just 3 – 4 days after hatching from the pupae. She deposits them in a suitable location in clumps that look like tiny white slivers. They hatch into larvae within hours if the temperature is warm enough. The larvae, or maggot stage, is very similar to the caterpillar stage of a butterfly. The fly remains in this stage for about 4 – 5 days. the larvae requires moist conditions to survive and large numbers can give the manure a ‘coffee grounds’ appearance.
The pupae is the fly’s ‘cocoon’ stage. Inside, the maggot turns into an adult fly in about 4 more days. The pupae is dark brown and about the size of a grain of rice. This is the stage a fly parasite kills – before the adult fly emerges. When a fly parasite finds a pupae, it drills a hole in the hard shell, kills the developing fly, feeds, then lays more fly parasite eggs.
Now the fly is dead. The young parasites are growing and eating the fly inside the pupae. This is the stage the fly parasites are shipped. They are easy to transport and convenient for you to handle when you receive them. It takes about 3 – 4 weeks to go from egg to adult parasite, much longer than the fly. Once developed, the adult parasite drills a small hole in the pupae and emerges, ready to search out and kill more fly pupae.
GETTING STARTED
The first step is to let us know you’re ready to start a Biological Fly Control Program. The earlier in the fly season you can get started, the better. Fly parasites are a long-term solution to fly problems, not a quick fix. They take time to establish, so don’t wait until you’re overrun with flies to call.
We will need to know the types of breeding sites you have; how many poultry houses, how many birds in each house, how many cattle, or horses, etc. Occasionally customers will ‘try out’ the program by only treating one small area or one poultry house. This isn’t going to tell you much. Unless the test program is totally isolated, the flies simply migrate from untreated areas or there just aren’t enough parasites to hurt the fly population. You can’t tell the difference and we lose a customer without a fair test.
We also need to know if there are other fly breeding sites. For example; dead bird pits, compost piles, cow or horse barns and corrals or piles of cleaned out manure. These areas should also be treated with parasits.
With this information, we can decide how many fly parasites you should order. That’s it! The fly parasites will be shipped automatically and live delivery is guaranteed. The program will continue until you stop it.
You need to place your order by Thursday noon for delivery to TerraLink the following Tuesday afternoon. You will then be called to pick them up, or, for a nominal fee, we can deliver them to you.