130 MUSHROOMS, HOW TO GKOW THEM. 



sweet apples, potatoes, and parsnips have been recom- 

 mended as baits for these pests, but I must discourage 

 using poisons of any sort in the mushroom house. Six 

 or eight inch square pieces of half rotten very dry boards 

 laid in pairs, one above the other, also make capital 

 traps ; the wood lice gather there to hide themselves ; 

 these traps should be examined frequently and the insects 

 shaken into the pail containing water and kerosene. 



Mites. — Two kinds of mites are very common about 

 mushrooms in spring and summer; one is whitish and 

 smaller than a "red spider" (one of the commonest 

 insect pests among garden plants), and the other is yel- 

 lowish and as large as or larger than a "red spider." 

 But I do not thiak that either of these mites is worth con- 

 sidering as a mushroom pest. The yellow mite (prob- 

 ably Lyroglyphus infestans) is extremely common in 

 strawy litter on the surface of hotbeds, and I have no 

 doubt finds its way into the mushroom house as manure 

 vermin rather than a mushroom parasite. They are the 

 effect and not the cause of injury to the crop. When 

 mushrooms are wounded or cracked, particularly about 

 the stem, the crevices often become abundantly inhabited 

 with these mites, but they do no material damage. 



Mice and Rats. — These rodents are very fond of 

 mushrooms, and where they have access to the beds are 

 troublesome and destructive. Both the common house 

 mouse and the white-bellied fence mouse are mushroom 

 destroyers, but, so far, the nimble but timid field mouse 

 (among garden, open air, and frame crops generally) 

 has never yet troubled our mushrooms, but I can 

 not believe that this immunity is voluntary on its part. 

 The mice bite a little piece here and there out of the 

 caps of the young mushrooms, and these bite-marks, as 

 the mushrooms advance in growth, spread open and 

 become unsightly disfigurements. In the case of 

 open mushrooms, however, the mice, like slugs, prefer 



