What does the mushroom long-headed mite look like? Key control points explained
Wood ear is a widely cultivated type of fungus, and during production it is very prone to pest and disease attacks due to improper management. Among these, the wood ear long-headed mite is a highly destructive pest that feeds on the mycelium and fruiting bodies of many varieties of edible fungi, and even feeds on different types of contaminant fungi. Once it occurs, it causes major economic losses for growers. So what does the wood ear long-headed mite look like? What are the key control points?
1. What does the wood ear long-headed mite look like?
Female mites that are not pregnant are flat and pearl-white in color; when they gather together they look like densely packed pearl powder. If a female mite is pregnant, its body is rounder and longer, several times the size of a non-pregnant mite.
Generally, the wood ear long-headed mite has only two stages in its life, the egg and adult mite stages, with no juvenile stage. The mite egg develops directly into an adult mite inside the mother's body and then emerges from the mother, so it reproduces by ovoviviparity.
After a female adult mite emerges from the mother's body, it immediately seeks out mycelium or fruiting bodies to feed on. Generally within one day, most female mites feed in one place, and the rear part of the body gradually swells; this is the so-called physogastric body. The specific body size is determined by the amount of food and the space available for growth.
If mites are reared on picked woolly wood ear ear pieces, the physogastric body is mostly round; if the physogastric body is on the fruiting body of black wood ear in a stock spawn bottle, its shape is generally elongated cylindrical. Therefore, physogastric bodies growing on culture material with more space and less crowding are mostly spherical, otherwise they are elongated cylindrical. The size of the physogastric body is between 2-4mm, with the longest reaching 7mm, and they can be observed with the naked eye. If the temperature is 27 degrees Celsius, only eight days are needed to complete one generation of reproduction.
2. Damage characteristics of the wood ear long-headed mite
The long-headed mite likes to eat edible fungi such as wood ear, especially the primordium part, where its gnawing is most severe. Inside the wood ear fruiting body, elongated cylindrical physogastric bodies can be seen; these are the so-called long-headed mites. It can also enter spawn bottles through the cotton plug and then bring in some contaminant fungi, infect the spawn, and naturally cause a decline in yield.
3. Control methods for the wood ear long-headed mite
1. Do a good job of sanitation in spawn production sites, especially reducing sources of contaminant fungus contamination, and promptly dispose of discarded contaminated fungus bottles to avoid pest sources.
2. When making spawn, insert the cotton plug tightly into the spawn bottle, which can effectively reduce mites crawling in.
3. When introducing spawn, operations must be strict to avoid the spread of pest mites. Also carry out regular inspections of spawn cultivation sites.