New Developments in Tsetse Fly Control Using Aircraft

Abstract

The use of aircraft to apply insecticides for the control of tsetse flies has become of increasing importance particularly during the last decade. Nearly 30 years have passed since air-spraying operations to combat tsetse fly first began in Southern Africa, (31,32) when fixed-wing aircraft were used to apply no persistent insecticides as aerosols and fine sprays. The stage has now been reached where such techniques are exploited on a large scale (17, 26). During the last eight years, helicopter spraying techniques have developed from field experiments with ground spraying techniques in Nigeria using persistent insecticides, i.e. the discriminative treatment of flies in continuous thickets, riverine habitats and other foci which tsetse flies are known to frequent. The choice of a particular technique has been determined to a large extent by the nature of the habitat and the topography of the land. It might also be influenced by traditional methods of tsetse control, such as discriminative and selective ground spraying, which, in Nigeria have been developed to a high degree of efficiency. It was therefore logical to adapt some aspects of these ground .spraying techniques when helicopter spraying was introduced for the first time in Nigeria.