Odour-baited targets to control tsetse flies, Glossina spp. (Diptera: Glossinidae), in Zimbabwe

From March to October 1984, targets consisting of black cloth and netting, baited with 1-octen-3-ol (released at about 0·5 mg/h), and acetone (about 100 mg/h) or butanone (15 mg/h), and coated with deltamethrin, were deployed at 3–5/km2 in 600 km2 of the Zambezi Valley of Zimbabwe where Glossina morsitans morsitans Westwood and G. pallidipes Austen were initially abundant. About 3 000 000 adults of G. pallidipes and 200 000 of G. m. morsitans originally present in the area as adults or pupae were killed by targets or removed by sampling procedures between March and December. At the end of this period, the tsetse populations in the centre of the block had declined by at least 99·99%. The targets dealt adequately with a strong invasion pressure from initially dense infestations nearby, partly because the targets reduced the abundance of tsetse up to 5–10 km outside the block. At 18 months after the start of the study, the targets were badly faded; this was corrected by spraying them with a black dye and an ultraviolet-light absorber that protected the dye and insecticide, but by then the targets had deteriorated and were without adequate odour attractant, and many were no longer being maintained. Tsetse then invaded further into the block, but only in small numbers. Tabanids and muscoids were not strongly attracted to targets; their population densities in and near the block did not change greatly. Targets offer a simple and ecologically clean method of controlling tsetse and preventing invasion. © 1988, Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.