Call number: LD2668 .T4 1985 E46 / Master of Science

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1965 V145 / Master of Science

Preliminary experiments in Virginia by Wallace and Turner (1961) on face fly control indicated that there was some promise using low-level feeding of a chemical such as ronnel in a mineral salt mixture as a larvicide. In cooperation with the Moorman Manufacturing Company and Mr. H. C. Stuart of Elk Garden, Virginia, a large scale experiment was initiated in the spring of 1962 . Approximately 1600 head of cattle in 23 pastures were utilized in this experiment. All of the pastures received a mineral salt mixture containing 5.5 percent ronnel with the exception of two pastures on the perimeter of the treated area that received no ronnel and were used as checks. Adult and larval counts were made on 7 of the 23 treated pastures and both of the untreated pastures. Results indicated that: (1) In spite of good larval control adult fly counts remained high, especially in treated pastures near untreated areas. Apparently the face fly has a natural tendency for dispersion, and, therefore, area control by low-level feeding of salt containing a larvicide is difficult. (2) When the consumption of ronnel remained above 5.5 mg per kg of animal body weight per day, larval control was above 95 percent. (3) During hot, dry periods animals reduced their salt consumption and this resulted in decreased larval control. (4) When salt boxes were placed in areas where cattle were seldom seen to frequent, salt consumption was lowered, as was larval control. / Master of Science

Naive observers are found to estimate numbers of dots on projected slides with a consistent factor of underestimation of ca. 0.75. There is an overall difference in response between males and females and between more experienced and less experienced observers. There is an apparent trade-off between accuracy and precision when significant differences in response are recorded. Training observers with slides of revealed value alone is equally effective as a combination of slides and a reference pamphlet: both produce improvements in accuracy and precision. A subjective visual index of house fly abundance is found to be more sensitive than Scudder grill counts, spot cards, sticky tape traps or square-foot panels to changes in house fly population densities. None of these methods is consistently the best correlated to the visual index, although the square-foot panels were most highly correlated most often. / Ph. D.