CHAPTER XIX. 



IKSECT AND OTHEE ENEMIES. 



The mushroom grower has his full sliare of insects to 

 contend with, and in order to overcome them one should 

 acquaint himself with them, and know what they are, 

 what they do, whence they came, and how to destroy 

 them. One should study the diseases and mishaps of 

 his crop and endeavor to know their cause. If we know 

 the cause of failing health in plants, even in mushrooms, 

 we can probably stop or devise a remedy for the disease 

 or means to prevent its recurrence, and if we can not 

 benefit the present subject we are forewarned against 

 future attacks. But there is a deal of mysterious trouble 

 in this direction in mushroom-growing. We are likely 

 to know something about the depredations committed 

 by insects or parasitic molds above ground, but I am 

 sure there is a good deal of niischicf going on under 

 ground of which we know very little, if anything. The 

 ills to which the mycelium is subject are not at all fully 

 understood. 



" Maggots." — This is Hhe common name am.ong prac- 

 tical mushroom growers for the larvae of a species of fly 

 (Diptera) which from April on through the warm sum- 

 mer months renders mushroom-growing unprofitable. 

 It is unavoidable, and so far has proved invincible. It 

 attacks the mushrooms in deep cellars, above-ground 

 houses, greenhouses, or frames, and is often quite com- 

 mon in early appearing crops in the open fields. We 

 sometimes read that it does not occur in unheated cel- 

 lars, but this is a mistake, for in our unheated tunnel 



132 



