| Controlling Flies with Traps - Fact or Fiction? |
 In
Africa, cloth traps and targets, with or without
residual insecticide impregnation, are used to
reduce tsetse
transmission of parasitic diseases to people
(sleeping sickness) and livestock (nagana)
(literature). These devices are effective against
tsetse because of their low reproductive rate
(females give birth to just one offspring every ten days).
Tsetse also fly over long distances. Their
numbers can therefore be reduced by widely-dispersed killing devices (they are the "jet aircraft" of the fly world).Control of other biting flies is more difficult as they produce large numbers of offspring and move over smaller areas. Biting flies also often emerge in overwhelming numbers over a short period of time. These biological features limit what one can achieve with an economical control strategy. |
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