Response of the house fly Musca domestica L. (Diptera: Muscidae) in the Central Jordan Valley to eight insecticides

Adult Musca domestica L. house flies were collected from the University Farm at the Central Jordan Valley by using the larval rearing medium as an attractive medium. The collected house flies were transferred to the insectary at the University of Jordan, Faculty of Agriculture, for rearing. Adult females, 3-6 days, were used for topical application of insecticides to the thorax as recommended by WHO (1981). The response of the field and the susceptible strains of the house fly to eight insecticides was determined. Results indicated that the field house fly population was slightly tolerant to propetamphos followed by fenthion of the OP insecticides with RFs of (3.55x) and (7.61x), respectively. The tested house fly was homogenous to both insecticides with regression lines slope of (2.53) and (2.86), respectively. For pyrethroid insecticides the tested house fly showed various degrees of tolerance to cypermethrin, permethrin 25.75 and permethrin 40.60 with RFs of (4.19x), (6.14x), and (8.18x), respectively. On the other hand, the house fly was slightly resistant to cyfluthrin and d-tetramethrin with RFs of (10.48x) and (28.12x), respectively. The slopes of the regression lines were (1.44), (1.45), (1.46), (1.5) and (1.67) for cypermethrin, cyfluthrin, permethrin 40:60, permethrin 25:75 and d-tetramethrin, respectively. For the carbamate insecticide propoxur, the RF was (15.24x) and the slope of the regression line was (1.94). This indicates that the house fly population was slightly resistant and rather homogenous in their response to this insecticide. The population of the house fly was found to have various degrees of homogeneity with tolerance or resistance to the tested insecticides. The insecticide that could be highly effective against the house fly is found to be propetamphos followed by cypermethrin. However, all insecticides with RFs less than 10 have good potential against the house fly