Field and laboratory trials of a novel metaflumizone house fly (Diptera: Muscidae) bait in California.

House fly responses to metaflumizone bait were studied in southern California. Field-strain, laboratory-reared flies in outdoor cages had access for 5 d to water and two containers of untreated sugar/dry milk (control), one container of untreated food and one container of metaflumizone bait, or one container of untreated food and one container of spinosad bait (positive control). Most fly mortality occurred between 0 and 48 h for spinosad and between 48 and 96 h for metaflumizone. On a commercial dairy, fly visitation and bait consumption were higher for metaflumizone bait than for sugar or imidacloprid bait. Flies seldom visited or consumed the imidacloprid bait. Approximately 32% of field flies collected directly from metaflumizone bait (single exposure) died when held in the laboratory with untreated food for 72 h versus < 5% mortality for flies from sugar or imidacloprid bait. Individual laboratory-reared females from a field strain and a susceptible laboratory strain were videotaped in the laboratory after exposure to untreated dry milk/sugar, metaflumizone bait, spinosad bait, and imidacloprid bait. Imidacloprid-induced mortality in field strain flies was low; when on the bait they spent proportionally less time feeding (38%) than did the laboratory strain flies (63%). Feeding by the field strain was more variable, and they fed less on all bait/food sources except metaflumizone. Metaflumizone has promise as a relatively slow-acting fly bait.