Biting Flies

BITING FLIES - The NZI Trap A simple, environment-friendly trap as an alternative to the use of insecticides
Hard to believe - A biting fly trap that actually works!
Photo by R.S. Copeland, ICIPE	The catch in a Nzi trap baited with cow urine and acetone in the Kenyan Rift Valley in June 1997. The netting contains 1,700 horse flies, stable flies and tsetse that have entered the trap within the last few hours. The collecting bag and bottle are overwhelmed by a catch over a few days of about 20 - 30,000 flies. Step by Step Instructions How to Make "DIY" Traps out of cloth or rigid materials (plywood, plexiglass) "Nzi" is Swahili for fly
Practical resources for making and using traps Publications in the scientific literature Images of species from Africa
Nzi trap catches on the 4^th of May, 2006 at the Lower Suwannee Wildlife Refuge between Chiefland and Cedar Key, Florida, USA. The bag contains thousands of tabanids, mostly horse flies of the species Tabanus lineola. (Photos by D. Strickman, USDA)
Tabanus similis	Resources and detailed information from a residential setting in Russell, Ontario

PubMed Mihok, S. (2002) The development of a multipurpose trap (the Nzi) for tsetse and other biting flies. Bulletin of Entomological Research 92, 385-403.	PubMed Mihok, S., Carlson, D.A., Krafsur, E.S. & Foil, L.D. (2006) Performance of the Nzi and other traps for biting flies in North America. Bulletin of Entomological Research 96, 387-397.

Mihok, S., Carlson, D.A. & Ndegwa, P.N. (2007) Tsetse and other biting fly responses to Nzi traps baited with octenol, phenols and acetone. Medical and Veterinary Entomology, 21, 70-84. PubMed Mihok, S. & Carlson, D.A. (2007) Performance of painted plywood and cloth Nzi traps relative to Manitoba and greenhead traps for tabanids and stable flies. Journal of Economic Entomology, 100, 613-618. PubMed

Record Daily Catches
Fly	Number	Place / Date	Odour Baits
Tsetse Flies	5,355	Nguruman, Kenya May 26, 1995	Acetone, Cow Urine, Octenol
Black Flies	~5,000	Ft Providence, NWT, Canada June 27, 2005	Octenol
Stable Flies	2,716	Nairobi, Kenya July 25, 1995	Octenol
	1,496	Lethbridge, Canada September 21, 1999	Unbaited
Horse Flies	964	Ft Providence, NWT, Canada June 27, 2005	Octenol
	626	Quelimane, Mozambique September 22, 1997	Acetone, Phenols
	557	Lahirasso, Burkina Faso November 1, 1997	Unbaited
Mosquitoes (Image 79k)	712	Russell, Ontario, Canada July 18, 2002	Carbon Dioxide Octenol
Tsetse Stamp		Dr. Steve Mihok BSc 1975 University of Toronto PhD 1979 University of Alberta 388 Church Street, Russell, Ontario, K4R 1A8 CANADA If you have found the Nzi trap useful Please tell me! Send me a picture! smihok@rogers.com

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On the web since February 2001
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