Flying insects

Flies
Flies are two winged insects implicated in the transmission of disease as well as annoying us in our homes, kitchens, work places and gardens.

A. The most common pest flies are the House Fly and Lesser House Fly. These are the flies you will often find flying around the middle of a room and particularly Lesser House Flies may not land on surfaces during the day.

B. Blow flies are associated with meat. Their larvae (maggots) feed on dead animal matter. Large numbers of flies can emerge from an animal as small as a rat. Blow flies such as blue bottles or green bottles are larger than house flies and often found battering themselves against windows, 'trying to get out'.

C. Cluster flies are common pests in certain regions of New Zealand near grass paddocks or large lawns. The larvae are parasites of earthworms in grassland. The large dull black flies emerge and will cluster together in warm dark areas of buildings to overwinter. The flies release a pheromone (smell) that attracts other cluster flies. The clusters are likely to form in roof voids, dark nooks and crannies or corners of rooms.

• The likelihood of clusters forming in your buildings can be greatly reduced by treating in spring the grass areas within 200m of buildings using NO Insects Lawngard Prills. This product slowly releases insecticide into the soil killing the cluster fly larvae and protecting the beneficial earthworms.
• Clusters can be knocked down by spray treatment with NO Bugs Super of NO Flies if the clusters can be found. Or they can be knocked down with NO Bugs Bug Bombs in areas where the clusters cannot be accessed.
• Because the pheromone will linger and continue to attract flies so that a new cluster would form. It is vitally important to then treat the surfaces where the clusters where with a residual spray such as NO Bugs Super or NO Flies and to remove as many dead flies as possible.

D. Vinegar Flies (also known as Fruit Flies) are tiny flies that are associated with overripe fruit or fermenting liquids such as old wine or beer.

• To control these flies remove all old fruit and stale sugary liquids. Clean surfaces on which flies are congregating and then spray surfaces with NO Bugs Super or NO Flies.

Mosquitoes
Mosquitoes are blood sucking flying insects that spread many serious diseases in tropical and sub-tropical regions. Thankfully, in New Zealand they rarely carry serious diseases but they cause itchy bites and are a severe nuisance in some warmer areas. Mosquitoes have mouth parts like a tiny hypodermic syringe which they use to penetrate the skin. Before sucking blood they inject saliva that contains anti-coagulant to stop the blood clotting and an anaesthetic to prevent the host detecting the mosquito. It is these proteins that cause the itchy reaction that many people have to the bites.

• Control of mosquitoes is a combination approach.
• Protect yourself with personal insect repellent. Kiwicare produce a variety of products; Safari Stick and Roll-On (which contain DEET plus Dimethyl 1, 2-Benzenedicarboxylate DMP) an Aerosol (which contains Dimethyl 1, 2-Benzenedicarboxylate DMP only) and:
• Safari Organic Insect Repellent Wipes which contain only natural organic botanical oils. Safari Wipes are certified organic bi BioGro and will give good protection when reapplied regularly. The wipes were tested by Consumer Magazine and TV3's Campbell Live and were found to give "good protection" for up to an hour in a "very demanding test."
• Keep mosquitoes at bay with NO Mosquitoes Citronella Candles. Light these candles around the home inside and outside to help deter mosquitoes and other insects.
• Identify possible breeding sites for mosquitoes. Look for stagnant or slow moving water and drain or treat these sites to deny them to breading mozzies.
• Spray areas around the home where mosquitoes might land using a long tern surface insecticide such as NO Bugs Super or NO Flies.

Wasps
The Common and German Wasps are distinctive with their shiny black and yellow striped abdomen and should not be confused with honey bees which usually have brown and black indistinct stripes, or bumble bees that have large round abdomens that may be black and yellow but are hairy. There are also other species of wasps but these are usually solitary or form only small loose colonies and are unlikely to be a pest.

A. Wasp colonies live in nests made of brown 'paper' made from chewing wood mixed with saliva. The nests are often built in a hollow in the ground, a tree or the eaves of a house.

B. In their native Europe only the queen wasps and very few workers survive the winter so that each spring new nests are created starting with the queen building a small golf ball sized nest and laying a few eggs. When the first workers hatch they take over the job of building the nest and foraging for food. The nest grows through the summer and might be as large as a beach ball by autumn. The nest can then contain several thousand wasps.

In parts of New Zealand the colonies may survive the winter and grow for a second season. Also the honeydew produced by scale insects in beech forests is highly attractive to wasps and provides the wasps with a ready supply of food which means that wasps in NZ can produce very large nests.

• Find the nest. If wasps are seen in numbers around a house it is likely that their nest is close by. Wasps often build a nest in the eaves of houses or in the ground in gardens. The nest site can be identified by carefully watching wasps feed and then following them back to their nest. The single entrance to the nest will have a constant stream of wasps leaving and arriving, particularly in warm weather.
• NO Wasps Wasp Dust can be puffed into the entrance of a wasp nest to destroy the wasps. Never spray a wasp nest with liquid of ordinary fly spray. Wasps will get agitated and become angry when sprayed and being stung will be more likely. Powder/dust insecticide helps to keep wasps calm during treatment. It may be advisable to treat a nest at night as wasps are not likely to be active. If you encounter difficulty with NO Wasp Dust Kiwicare Carbaryl 80 garden insecticide can be used. This product contains a higher level of active ingredient than the wasp dust which will kill wasps more effectively but should only be used where wasps cannot avoid it as it has some deterrent effect. So only use at nest entrances.
• In some situations the entrance to the nest can be hard to reach with the NO Wasps Dust Pack; e.g. if the nest is in the eaves of a house or in the ground but through a tangle of foliage. In this case it can be difficult to get sufficient wasp dust in the actual nest entrance. In these cases it may be necessary to treat several times the areas where you see wasps land and move into the entrance. The wasps then carry the dust into the nest on their feet.
• Note: - the wasp dust will not work well in damp conditions as it is not picked up on the feet of the wasps. It is also better to use a little often than use a lot of dust in one go. A single wasp dust puffer should be enough to destroy 3-4 nests.
• Where the location of a nest cannot be found wasps can be controlled by a combination of methods. Bait can be made up using NO Wasps Concentrate mixed carefully with sugar syrup (where there are no bees) or cat food or canned sardines. These baits must be placed out of the reach of other animals. The wasps will feed on the bait and take it back to the nest where it will be fed to the queen and larvae. Although this method can be a little 'hit or miss' it can reduce the extent to which wasps bother you in an area.
• Wasps around your refuse bin or deck etc. can be controlled using residual surface spray such as NO Wasps or NO Bugs Super. Spray all the areas where wasps are observed landing. This will reduce the number of wasps and may have some deterrent effect but is unlikely to get rid of all the wasps from an area.

Honey Bees
Honey Bees are beneficial insects producing honey and pollinating much of our pasture clover and many crops. However, occasionally wild bees will set up home in inappropriate places such as roof voids, wall cavities and chimneys. In these cases if a beekeeper cannot collect the bees it may be necessary to destroy them.

• Honey bee colonies can be very large containing many tens of thousands of individual bees so destroying the colony may require several treatments with dust insecticide such as NO Wasps Dust or Carbaryl 80.
• It should also be understood that if the bees have produced a honey store, more bees and wasps will be attracted to the honey left in the nest and they may re-colonise it after destruction of the original colony. The honey store will need to be removed or at least sealed up.

Bumble Bees
Bumble bees form much smaller colonies than honey bees or wasps and are not usually considered pests. Bumble bees have distinctive large round hairy bodies and are usually black and yellow. Bumble bees can sting and bite but very rarely do. Occasionally the bees will set up home in an inappropriate place such as a sub floor, roof void or compost heap. Normally this would not be a problem but some people may be concerned by the number of bees and want to have them removed or destroyed.

• Sometimes the nest can be collected and moved to a more suitable site. If there is no other option the use of NO Wasps Wasp Dust or Carbaryl 80 can be used to destroy the colony.

MIdges and Lake Flies

The  New Zealand midges or lake flies are native flying insects associated with water such as lakes and so are often referred to as Lake Flies. They should not be confused with the biting midges found in the northern hemisphere. The adults are 5-10mm in size and do not bite, having no mouth parts. The adults only live for around 36 hours, however, they can become a considerable nuisance when they congregate in very large numbers during warm weather. They may be seen in large clouds around lakes and will be attracted by lights and settle on light coloured surfaces.

• The use of NO Flies or NO Bugs Super will reduce the numbers of midges congregating on your home and will at least reduce the nuisance.