ENTOMOPATHOGENIC NEMATODES FOR BIOLOGICAL CONTROL OF HOUSE FLY, MUSCA DOMESTICA L. IN EGYPT

Abstract

Two species of entomopathogenic nematodes Heterorhabditis bacteriophora (Filipjev) and Steinernema feltiae ( Poinar ) at five doses (50, 100, 500, 1000 and 2000 IJs / treatment), were examined against house fly, Musca domestica L. larvae under laboratory and field conditions. Under laboratory conditions, S. feltiae gave the highest mortality percentages with the nematode doses of 2000 and 1000 IJs / treatment, giving 67.50% and 54.97%, respectively, while the doses of 50 and 100 IJs gave unsatisfactory control results estimating by 20% and 32.50%, respectively. In addition, H. bacteriophora nematode gave the highest mortality percentages with the nematode doses of 2000 IJs and 1000 IJs / treatment, giving 55.85% and 45.83%, respectively, while the doses of 50 IJs and 100 IJs gave the least control results estimating by 14.15% and 15%, respectively. Meanwhile, under field conditions the highest reduction percentages of house fly larvae were recorded with the treatment of H. bacteriophora (100.000 IJs / treatment) giving only 8 live larvae after one month of treating 3000 house fly larvae resulted 91.8% mortality, while the treatment of S. feltiae (100.000 IJs / treatment) gave 14.38 live larvae from 3000 treated equaling 85.2% mortality without significant differences between them.