Interactions of environment and bait on blow fly (Diptera: Calliphoridae) and flesh fly (Diptera: Sarcophagidae) trap capture

Bait trapping is a common practice throughout the field of entomology to target specific groups of insects for research interests like surveys of presence, abundance, and distribution. This technique can also be used to capture live insects to use in further research studies or to establish laboratory colonies. This study investigated the effectiveness of different types of bait, levels of bait decomposition, and environmental effects for live traps targeting carrion-associated families Calliphoridae and Sarcophagidae. Trapping was conducted over a 3-mo period in the summer in Stephens County, Texas. Model selection was used to analyze the effects of bait type, decomposition level, temperature, and relative humidity on overall trap capture at the family level for Calliphoridae and Sarcophagidae, and the species level for Lucilia mexicana Macquart (Diptera: Calliphoridae). Though the data were highly variable and did not show high R2 in the best models, relative humidity was always included in the best models and may play an important role in the number of flies captured during bait trapping. There is also evidence of an interaction between relative humidity and bait type present in some models describing the number of Calliphoridae collected. The results of this study indicate a need for further research into the interactions between environmental variables like relative humidity on bait types commonly used in field trapping for carrion-associated flies.