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House Fly (Musca domestica L.) Attraction to Insect Honeydew

House flies are of major concern as vectors of food-borne pathogens to food crops. House flies are common pests on cattle feedlots and dairies, where they develop in and feed on animal waste. By contacting animal waste, house flies can acquire human pathogenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli and S...

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Autores principales: Hung, Kim Y., Michailides, Themis J., Millar, Jocelyn G., Wayadande, Astri, Gerry, Alec C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4430494/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25970333
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0124746
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author Hung, Kim Y.
Michailides, Themis J.
Millar, Jocelyn G.
Wayadande, Astri
Gerry, Alec C.
author_facet Hung, Kim Y.
Michailides, Themis J.
Millar, Jocelyn G.
Wayadande, Astri
Gerry, Alec C.
author_sort Hung, Kim Y.
collection PubMed
description House flies are of major concern as vectors of food-borne pathogens to food crops. House flies are common pests on cattle feedlots and dairies, where they develop in and feed on animal waste. By contacting animal waste, house flies can acquire human pathogenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp., in addition to other bacteria, viruses, or parasites that may infect humans and animals. The subsequent dispersal of house flies from animal facilities to nearby agricultural fields containing food crops may lead to pre-harvest food contamination with these pathogens. We hypothesized that odors from honeydew, the sugary excreta produced by sucking insects feeding on crops, or molds and fungi growing on honeydew, may attract house flies, thereby increasing the risk of food crop contamination. House fly attraction to honeydew-contaminated plant material was evaluated using a laboratory bioassay. House flies were attracted to the following plant-pest-honeydew combinations: citrus mealybug on squash fruit, pea aphid on faba bean plants, whitefly on navel orange and grapefruit leaves, and combined citrus mealybug and cottony cushion scale on mandarin orange leaves. House flies were not attracted to field-collected samples of lerp psyllids on eucalyptus plants or aphids on crepe myrtle leaves. Fungi associated with field-collected honeydews were isolated and identified for further study as possible emitters of volatiles attractive to house flies. Two fungal species, Aureobasidium pullulans and Cladosporium cladosporioides, were repeatedly isolated from field-collected honeydew samples. Both fungal species were grown in potato dextrose enrichment broth and house fly attraction to volatiles from these fungal cultures was evaluated. House flies were attracted to odors from A. pullulans cultures but not to those of C. cladosporioides. Identification of specific honeydew odors that are attractive to house flies could be valuable for the development of improved house fly baits for management of this pest species.
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spelling pubmed-44304942015-05-21 House Fly (Musca domestica L.) Attraction to Insect Honeydew Hung, Kim Y. Michailides, Themis J. Millar, Jocelyn G. Wayadande, Astri Gerry, Alec C. PLoS One Research Article House flies are of major concern as vectors of food-borne pathogens to food crops. House flies are common pests on cattle feedlots and dairies, where they develop in and feed on animal waste. By contacting animal waste, house flies can acquire human pathogenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp., in addition to other bacteria, viruses, or parasites that may infect humans and animals. The subsequent dispersal of house flies from animal facilities to nearby agricultural fields containing food crops may lead to pre-harvest food contamination with these pathogens. We hypothesized that odors from honeydew, the sugary excreta produced by sucking insects feeding on crops, or molds and fungi growing on honeydew, may attract house flies, thereby increasing the risk of food crop contamination. House fly attraction to honeydew-contaminated plant material was evaluated using a laboratory bioassay. House flies were attracted to the following plant-pest-honeydew combinations: citrus mealybug on squash fruit, pea aphid on faba bean plants, whitefly on navel orange and grapefruit leaves, and combined citrus mealybug and cottony cushion scale on mandarin orange leaves. House flies were not attracted to field-collected samples of lerp psyllids on eucalyptus plants or aphids on crepe myrtle leaves. Fungi associated with field-collected honeydews were isolated and identified for further study as possible emitters of volatiles attractive to house flies. Two fungal species, Aureobasidium pullulans and Cladosporium cladosporioides, were repeatedly isolated from field-collected honeydew samples. Both fungal species were grown in potato dextrose enrichment broth and house fly attraction to volatiles from these fungal cultures was evaluated. House flies were attracted to odors from A. pullulans cultures but not to those of C. cladosporioides. Identification of specific honeydew odors that are attractive to house flies could be valuable for the development of improved house fly baits for management of this pest species. Public Library of Science 2015-05-13 /pmc/articles/PMC4430494/ /pubmed/25970333 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0124746 Text en © 2015 Hung et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Hung, Kim Y.
Michailides, Themis J.
Millar, Jocelyn G.
Wayadande, Astri
Gerry, Alec C.
House Fly (Musca domestica L.) Attraction to Insect Honeydew
title House Fly (Musca domestica L.) Attraction to Insect Honeydew
title_full House Fly (Musca domestica L.) Attraction to Insect Honeydew
title_fullStr House Fly (Musca domestica L.) Attraction to Insect Honeydew
title_full_unstemmed House Fly (Musca domestica L.) Attraction to Insect Honeydew
title_short House Fly (Musca domestica L.) Attraction to Insect Honeydew
title_sort house fly (musca domestica l.) attraction to insect honeydew
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4430494/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25970333
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0124746
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