Effects of New Dietary Ingredients Used in Artificial Diet for Screwworm Larvae (Diptera: Calliphoridae)

A cellulose fiber-based diet for screwworm (Diptera: Calliphoridae) larvae.

A highly absorbent cellulose fiber from recycled paper was tested and compared with a polyacrylate gelling agent, Aquatain, normally used for bulking and solidifying larval rearing medium of screwworm, Cochliomyia hominivorax (Coquerel) (Diptera: Calliphoridae). The absorbent fiber, when mixed with water and dietary ingredients, produced a diet medium of homogeneous texture that supported larva...

A new meatless diet for adult screwworm (Diptera: Calliphoridae).

Screwworm flies, Cochliomyia hominivorax (Coquerel), were fed on honey and spray dried egg product; honey, molasses, and spray dried egg product; honey and spray dried meat protein; as well as on a control diet of honey and horsemeat, which is the standard diet used for screwworm adult colony in the mass-rearing facility. In general, the weight of eggs laid by females fed on the diet of spray d...

Gelled diet for screwworm (Diptera: Calliphoridae) mass production.

A rearing system based on a diet gelled with Water-Lock G-400, a synthetic superabsorbent (poly(2-propenamide-co-2-propenoic acid, sodium salt)) (WL), was compared with the standard rearing system (liquid diet suspended in acetate fibers) for the mass production of screwworms, Cochliomyia hominivorax (Coquerel). The WL rearing system yielded 2% heavier pupae, 32% higher egg to pupa survival, an...

Diet pH, and viscosity affect development and survival of screwworm larvae (Diptera: Calliphoridae).

The effects of dietary pH and viscosity on larval development of the New World screwworm, Cochliomyia hominivorax (Coquerel) (Diptera: Calliphoridae), were studied in the laboratory using a gel-based and a cellulose fiber-based media. The mean initial pH of the standard gelled diet was lower (6.5 +/- 0.3) than that of the standard cellulose fiber-based diet (6.8 +/- 0.6). As larval development ...

Comparison of gelled and meat diets for rearing screwworm, Cochliomyia hominivorax (Diptera: Calliphoridae), larvae.