130 
MUSHROOMS, HOW TO GROW THEM. 
sweet apples, potatoes, and parsnips have been recoin* 
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 think 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, bub, 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 
