In order to control any pest it is essential to study the life cycle, biology and
bionomics of the target pest under control. With this respect, we have studied the flight range
of the house fly Musca domestica (L.). The flight range of the house fly from two sites i.e,
the poultry farm and a stable farm has been studied. The flight range study was conducted
using a mark release technique. The approach we used in this study was that the flies collected
from the respective farms were marked and released at different distances from the farms.
The flies were then re-captured from the poultry farm and the stable farm. Studies conducted
elsewhere use the technique of releasing the insect species at one spot and recapturing the
insect species with the help of baited traps placed at various locations from the release
point. The advantage of the approach used in this study was that the flight range as well as
the homing effect was determined. From this study, the flight range of house flies released at
the poultry farm was 7 km whereas flight range for flies release from stable farm was 5 km.
The recovery rate of house flies at the poultry and stable farm was 0.05% and 0.016%, In this
study, marked specimens has been detected up to 8 days in field conditions indicating that
under field condition the life expectancy could be in the range of 1-2 weeks.