Discriminative application of insecticide against Glossina morsitans Westw

Extract

A dieldrin emulsion spray containing 3 per cent, dieldrin (w/v) was applied once to the putative resting places of Glossina morsitans Westw. throughout a comparatively isolated 17-sq.-mile fly-belt in the Kabiganda Valley in southwestern Uganda between October 1957 and September 1958. Concentration areas of the fly consisted of one or more tall trees with associated understorey and thicket. The lower sides of the branches of an average of 6·75 such trees per acre were treated at a rate of about one-fifth of a pound of dieldrin per acre and at a cost of about £250 per sq. mile.

Chemical analysis showed a deposit of approximately 0·8g. dieldrin per sq. metre on the surface sprayed, and although 90 per cent, of this had disappeared from the surface after about four months, it is thought that the application remains effective for this period.

A very great reduction in the tsetse population was achieved. Small numbers of flies continued to be caught, but it was thought possible that these were being brought in from neighbouring valleys by buffalo, and, hence, that insecticidal application of this sort, if carried out over a wide enough area, might eradicate a tsetse population.