Arming against those 

 indoor sand fly attacks 



Do you find yourself serving as a midnight snack 

 for sand flies? 



Some relief from the annual sand fly attack you 

 find yourself battling right inside the house may be 

 in sight. 



Drs. R. C. Axtell and J. C. Dukes, NCSU ento- 

 mologists working with UNC Sea Grant and N. C. 

 Agricultural Experiment Station support, have 

 come up with a strategy that may stop the sand fly 

 foot soldiers before they get under your roof. 



Their battle plan: Knock them off at the window 

 screens, one of the places they rest before charging 

 into the house. The weapon: chemical insecticides 

 applied to the screens. 



Any coastal resident who's tried to spend an 

 evening relaxing at home knows that ordinary 

 window screens just don't keep those tiny flies out. 



But Axtell and Dukes, who learned that the 

 pesky insects sit on the screens before darting 

 through the tiny openings, reasoned that a good 

 defense might be to expose the sand flies to insec- 

 ticides when they land on the screen. 



After testing various insecticides on different 

 types of screen, the researchers aren't willing to 

 guarantee that treated screens will keep all the 

 sand flies out. But their experiments show that the 

 number entering and biting can be greatly reduced. 



Specifically, the researchers dipped aluminum 

 and fiberglass screening into an eight percent 

 mixture of the chemical, malathion, and another 

 mixture of eight percent propoxur to get the best 

 kill, according to Axtell. 



Researchers subjected the treated screens to the 

 elements for varying time periods to determine 

 how long the insecticide would work. 



Under laboratory conditions, malathion and 

 propoxur killed 96 out of every 100 sand flies for 

 28 days. But according to Axtell, the length of 

 control on home window screens would depend on 

 weather conditions. 



Off the press 



Two UNC Sea Grant publications relat- 

 ing to insect pest management in coastal 

 areas are available from the UNC Sea 

 Grant Program Office, 1235 Burlington 

 Laboratories, N. C. State University, Ral- 

 eigh, N. C. 27607. They are listed below, 

 along with other recently-published UNC 

 Sea Grant publications. 



UNC-SG-74-08. Training Manual for 

 Mosquito and Biting Fly Control in Coast- 

 al Areas. Axtell, R. C. $3. 



UNC-SG-73-03. Public Opinion on Insect 

 Pest Mangement in Coastal North Caro- 

 lina. Gerhardt, R. R., J. C. Dukes, J. M. 

 Falter, and R. C. Axtell. $1. 



UNC-SG-74-10. Evaluation of Twin 

 Trawl Shrimp Fishing Gear and Adden- 

 dum. Chleborowicz, A. G. $1. 



UNC-SG-74-12. Technical Operations 

 Manual for the Blue Crab Industry. Miller, 

 T., N. Webb and F. Thomas. $1. 



UNC-SG-74-16. Proceedings of a Con- 

 ference on Coastal Management. Center for 

 Marine and Coastal Studies. $3. 



UNC-SG-75-02. Nekton Population Dy- 

 namics in the Albemarle Sound and Neuse 

 River Estuaries. Hester, J. M. and B. J. 

 Copeland. 



University of North Carolina 

 Sea Grant Program 

 1235 Burlington Laboratories 

 North Carolina State University 

 Raleigh, N. C. 27607 



Second-class postage paid at Raleigh, 

 N. C. 27611 



