If you don’t stop us we will harass your animals and stress them causing your production to decrease. Then we may spread diseases and make your vet bills skyrocket. We will also pester YOU when you are around the animals or barn. If you live nearby we will follow you to your homes and bother you there too.
DON’T WORRY, BUGS FOR BUGS IS HERE TO HELP YOU!
We are experts in biological fly control and Integrated Pest Management (IPM). We will explain step by step everything you need to know to manage your flies so your animals can be stress-free and you can sleep easy at night.
BUT FIRST - LET’S LEARN ABOUT FLIES!
Fly Biology
Flies have 4 distinct life stages:
The life-cycle (or development time) is directly related to temperature. The warmer it is, the faster that cycle is, and so the faster they breed.
Flies in your barn or stable
Adult filth flies deposit eggs in decaying organic matter. Manure is the main culprit, but wet feed, silage, straw, hay, leaves, etc., can rot and decompose and then they can become fertile fly breeding grounds as well. If you have manure you will have flies! The eggs quickly hatch into larvae and it is during this life stage that they do all of their growing. These are more commonly known as maggots. They are white and are easy to see because they squirm when disturbed. As it goes through its development, each larva eventually transforms to the non-feeding pupal stage. At this stage it forms an armour-like coating, which is formed from the larval skin and protects the pupa during its metamorphosis to an adult fly. Upon emergence, the adult fly can soon mate and lay eggs and so repeat the life cycle.
Why do fly populations rise quickly and are so difficult to control?
First of all, we give them an abundance of their preferred breeding material – fresh manure! It’s warm, moist, and nutrient dense. The odour attracts them and then it’s party time for flies. The manure is an excellent food source for maggots that hatch from the eggs.
One fly can lay up to 900 eggs. Yes, you read that right. 900 eggs! That’s off the chart in the insect world. And that means you will soon get a lot of fly larvae. And then pupae, and finally a lot of adult flies. But your anxiety may get worse because…
The flies breed very quickly! It depends on temperature; generally, the warmer it is the faster it gets. In summer temperatures the development time is around 1-2 weeks but when it’s very hot as little as 5-7 days!
In summary, we provide flies with tons of manure, they lay a crazy amount of eggs, and they breed super-fast in hot summer temperatures. YOU WILL HAVE A LOT OF FLIES.
Traditional fly control
Most treatments to control flies target only the adult stage. Those strategies include pesticides, sticky sheets or strings, fly bait, fly traps, and bug zappers. However, during most of the season, adult flies represent only around 20% of the total fly population. In the manure and other breeding grounds, you will find a combination of fly eggs, larvae, and pupae and together they represent the other 80%.
These adult-targeted fly control techniques can all be effective tools in an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) system but by using only these elements the most you can hope for at any given time is to control 20% of the fly population. Even with a powerful and toxic pesticide application, you may notice a sudden drop in your fly population, but just days later you may have flies everywhere again! This is because the immature stages of flies are not targeted for control, and they represent the overwhelming majority of the fly population. They will soon emerge from hidden pupae and return in abundance.
Therefore, what is needed is a strategy that focuses primarily on the immature stages so we can target the majority of the fly population. This leads us to one of nature’s greatest gifts to animal farmers.
Terry Howell
I have been using the BUGS FOR BUGS biological fly control program on my dairy farm for over 10 years! I really like it, and the principles behind it, no chemicals or sprays. I use no other fly control products, and find the fly population quite manageable on our 80 cow dairy in the summer months. I distribute the pouches of parasitic wasps weekly, which is a quick, easy and clean task anyone could do. The pouches are delivered right to my door, through Canada Post, which is very convenient. Any issues throughout the years have been dealt with quickly and in a timely manner by the staff at Bugs for Bugs. The cost of this program is very comparable to traditional fly control methods without the risk of health concerns for us or the animals we care for. I would highly recommend this product to anyone who would consider an alternative approach to fly control on their farm.