QUESTION:

We have worked in the past year with Quick Bayt from Bayer for fly treatment and the results were very good. This season Bayer changed the formula and this product does not work very well. Please give me advice for combatting flies efficiently. Thank you

ANSWER:

The Quick Bayt from Bayer appears to be the trade name they use outside of North America, and within the U.S. at least it is called Maxforce Granular Fly Bait. They likely are much the same product, with imidacloprid as the active ingredient, along with 2 additional ingredients - the attractant Muscalure to enhance the attraction to the bait and the bittering agent Bitrex, which helps to prevent animals and children from eating the bait. I had not heard myself that the ingredients or formulation had changed much recently, but perhaps it did and that information just passed me by.

This bait can be used two ways - either dry as a granule that is scattered where this is an appropriate method or within a fly bait station where the bait needs to be contained. Misting the granules with water will increase the attraction to the bait by flies. It also can be mixed with water and applied as a paint-on slurry to surfaces where the flies gather, such as fences or walls of out-buildings. This causes the granules to stick to the surface and be readily available to the filth flies, such as house flies. If eaten it should cause the death of the fly within 30 minutes, so with luck you can enjoy the results by observing the dead flies lying around.

But, as with any bait for any kind of animal, sometimes the intended target just does not want to eat the bait, and perhaps this is the case for you. If the formula of the Fly Bayt has changed it could be that flies in your area are not as attracted to it. I really doubt that there could be any resistance or immunity to the active ingredient (the imidacloprid), so avoidance of the bait would seem to be more likely. If this is the case my best suggestion when baiting is needed would be to try alternative products, and these could be one of the other granular baits (Elector, Bonanza, Golden Malrin, Stimukil) which may contain other active ingredients and food attractants. There also is Quikstrike fly strips, which can be placed in areas of high fly activity and which kill flies within minutes. Offering alternative products not only increases the likelihood of acceptance, but also helps reduce concerns of resistance beginning to any one ingredient.

Of course, I could never end a sermon on fly management without suggesting that chemical controls should be used only after the other IPM options are put into motion - sanitation, exclusion, habitat modification, etc., as well as the use of non-chemical tools such as light or bait traps. Fly management is very difficult, and is only successful if the whole bag of tools is used.

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