Flotation method for extracting insects from poultry manure samples.

We examined the efficacy of a sucrose-based flotation method for extracting 3 prevalent insect species from poultry house manure: 3rd-instar Musca domestica L. (Diptera: Muscidae), Carcinops pumilio (Erichson) (Coleoptera: Histeridae) adults, and Alphitobius diaperinus (Panzer) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) adults. A 0.6 M sucrose solution in distilled water altered the specific gravity to 1.2 and caused the 3 species to float to the water surface for easy separation. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed significant effects of the solution volume to sample mass ratio on recovery rates (F = 35.96, P < 0.0001), but no differences in species-specific recovery rates (F = 0.97, P = 0.3824). Among samples agitated in a ratio of at least 3.2 ml solution per gram of sample mass, we observed neither significant ratio effects (F = 1.37, P = 0.2442) nor significant differences in species-specific recovery rates (F = 2.05, P = 0.1353); overall, we recovered 97.49 +/- 0.20% of all individuals of the 3 species. Our analyses demonstrated that sucrose-based flotation was a statistically valid method of collecting these species from poultry manure samples.