MUSHROOM PESTS AND HOW TO CONTROL THEM. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. Page. 



Introduction 3 Sowbugs 9 



Mushroom maggots 3 Slugs 11 



The mushroom mite 6 Crickets 12 



Springtails S General summary 13 



INTRODUCTION. 



CULTIVATED mushrooms are subject to attack by a variety of 

 pests, especially during warm weather. Some of these may be 

 brought into the house in the compost of which the beds are com- 

 posed, attacking the mushrooms through preference, while others 

 feed normally upon mushrooms, and are attracted from the wild 

 forms outside through the greater abundance of their natural food 

 plant in the cultivated beds. Injury by these pests frequently be- 

 comes serious. This bulletin treats of the measures for the protection 

 of the crop from such injury. 



The insect and other pests which usually attack cultivated mush- 

 rooms, and those of which complaints are most frequently made, 

 may be divided roughly into four classes, namely, mushroom mag- 

 gots, mites, springtails, and sowbugs. Of these the maggots are the 

 most generally injurious, the mites following in order of importance, 

 owing to the difficulty with which their eradication is accomplished, 

 and then come springtails and sowbugs in the order named. 



MUSHROOM MAGGOTS. 



The injurious forms commonly known as " mushroom maggots " 

 are small, whitish or yellowish-white maggots, usually having black 

 heads. They are the larvse, or young, of certain small, two-winged 

 fungus gnats or flies, usually black or blackish in color, and belong- 

 ing to several species.^ They are minute, measuring only about one- 

 tenth inch in length and about one-eighth inch in spread of wings. 

 They are rapid and prolific breeders, especially during warm weather, 



1 The species attracting the most attention as pests are Slciara multiseta Felt, Sciara 

 w/raria Felt, and Aphiochacta alhUUhalteris Felt (see fig. 1). They belong to the two 

 families of flies known as Mycetophilidae and Phoridae. 



68270°— Bull. 789—17 3 



