We studied the effects of various oils used to trap sand flies on the recovery of virus from infected adult Phlebotomus papatasi. Both Rift Valley fever and sandfly fever Sicilian viruses were readily recovered from virus-inoculated specimens held at 26 degrees C on mineral, olive or castor oil-soaked sheets for up to 12 h. However, after 50 h on oil-soaked paper, significantly greater titers were recovered from sand flies trapped with mineral oil than from sand flies trapped with either of the other oils. This indicates that sand flies trapped on oil-soaked paper would be suitable for virus isolation attempts and that mineral oil had the least effect on virus recovery.