Circular No. 457 



Issued April 1938 



Revised December 1941 • Washington, D. C. 



UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Mushroom Pests and Their Control 



By A. C. Davis, assistant entomologist. Division of Truck Crop and Garden 

 Insect Investigations, Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine 



CONTENTS 



Page 



Introduction 1 



Importance of proper composting for control of 



mushroom pests 2 



Precautions to be observed in preparation of 



the mushroom house or cellar 3 



Spraying of the house 4 



Fumigation or sterilization of the house 



before filling it 4 



Pest control during process of filling and heat- 

 ing of beds 8 



Natural and artificial heating 8 



Fumigation 10 



General sanitary measures 12 



Control of mushroom pests in bearing houses. . 13 

 Principal pests attacking mushrooms and 



methods for their control 13 



Flies 13 



Mites 21 



Springtails 24 



Miscellaneous pests 25 



y ^yyy w y M M y w 



INTRODUCTION 



The great increase in both commercial and amateur mushroom 

 growing in the United States during the last 30 years has brought 

 increasingly to the attention of the growers that cultivated mush- 

 rooms are subject to serious loss from improper cultural methods, 

 diseases, fungus weeds, insects, and mites. In these days of relatively 

 lower prices and higher production costs it is necessary that the grower 

 obtain more mushrooms per square foot of bed space than ever before 

 if he is to succeed, and in order to do this every possible source of loss 

 must be eliminated. Studies by various agencies have partly solved 

 most of these problems, but there still remains much to be done. This 

 circular deals principally with the insects and mites that attack mush- 

 rooms and with their control. Especially in such districts as south- 

 eastern Pennsylvania, which produces more than 50 percent of the 

 mushrooms grown in the United States, where some mushrooms are 

 grown at all seasons of the year, and in which the industry is greatly 

 concentrated, insect and mite pests are a constant menace. 



Mushroom flies (Sciaridae), manure flies (Phoridae). the mushroom 

 mite, and the long-legged mite are the most important pests of culti- 

 vated mushrooms in the United States. In addition to these, however, 

 there are several other pests of lesser importance. 



400514°— 41 1 1 



