Fly Identification & Differences
The stable fly, Stomoxys calcitrans
The economic injury level for feeder cattle is when the stable fly population reaches an average of about five flies per front leg.1 In a compilation of studies, the five fly population groups showed a reduction in feed efficiency that resulted in an average loss of $8.51 per animal per season.2 At higher infestations, cattle demonstrated even greater reduction in average daily gains. The economic threshold is defined as the level of flies in which the economic loss is equal to the cost of controlling the pest. Additional evaluations indicated that the threshold would only be an average of 1.19 stable flies per front leg per animal.3
Females lay hundreds of eggs in manure, wet hay and other decaying organic matter.
The stable fly is close in size to the house fly and has similar stripes on their thorax; however, stable flies have a distinct “checker-board” pattern on their abdomen. In addition to this, they have distinct piercing type mouthparts that are used to penetrate the skin of their hosts to obtain blood meals. Stable fly eggs are about 1 mm in length and are usually laid in masses of up to 50 eggs. Eggs hatch in 1 to 3 days.
Larvae prefer fecal material that has been mixed with soil, straw, bedding material, silage or grain, but will also develop in wet grass clippings, silage, and poorly managed compost piles. Like house fly larvae, stable fly larvae will migrate to drier areas to pupate.
Depending on the temperature, new adults will emerge for these pupae in 6 to 26 days. The entire life cycle takes 3 to 4 weeks. [Back]
- 1 McNeal & Campbell (©1981)
- 2 John B. Campbell, The Economic Significance of the Stable Fly
- 3 http://www.csress.usda.gov/nea/biotech/pdf/highlights_2002_no3.pdf
Stable Fly
