How to treat mushroom flies? These effective control tips really work

Black fungus gnats, eye fungus gnats and other Diptera insects are collectively called "mushroom flies". The damage caused by mushroom flies can reduce shiitake mushroom yields by about 30%. Therefore, effective control of "mushroom flies" can increase shiitake cultivation yields by about 30%.

1. Living habits and outbreak patterns of mushroom flies

Mushroom flies like to reproduce in damp, dirty environments, and fungal mycelium is one of the best food sources for these insects. Their main mode of damage is biting and eating the mycelium, disrupting normal mycelium growth, causing the mycelium to weaken or die, while also creating conditions for contamination by foreign microorganisms, allowing some competitive foreign microorganisms to multiply in large numbers on the damage spots caused by mushroom flies and produce antibiotics, triggering disease and further destroying shiitake mycelium, creating a vicious cycle. In addition, springtails, mites, nematodes and others will also take the opportunity to multiply and cause damage in large numbers within the bite spots, worsening the degree of damage. The combined effect of insects and disease causes mycelium autolysis, loosening of the substrate, and black water flowing everywhere.

After the mushroom fly larvae cause damage inside artificial mushroom logs for 2 to 3 weeks, they harden into pupae, and after a 3 to 7 day pupal stage, they emerge as adults and fly out. The adults mate on the same day they emerge and quickly lay eggs. Each female can lay anywhere from several dozen to 300 eggs. After mushroom logs are damaged, the disease spots produce a special attractive odor that strongly lures mushroom flies. Therefore, mushroom flies often return to the disease spots to lay eggs, causing damage in the next generation.

2. Integrated control measures for mushroom flies

1. Clean up waste substrate in a timely manner. During the shiitake harvesting process, discarded mushroom logs should be promptly picked out and stacked together. Once harvesting is finished, all mushroom logs should immediately be removed from the racks and bags and stacked together, and the mushroom shed should be thoroughly cleaned. The waste pile should be kept away from the inoculation site for the next batch of mushroom logs. Pour 5% lime water over the pile, then spray the surface with a 200-fold dichlorvos solution and cover with plastic film. This can both promote fermentation and decomposition and kill insects and sterilize. After the waste pile has been stacked for 40 days, it can be used as organic fertilizer. At the same time, building biogas pits should be encouraged to reduce consumption of forest resources, reduce environmental pollution, and reduce insect damage.

2. Keep the inoculation site and fruiting site clean. Before stacking, the inoculation site and mushroom shed, including the artificial mushroom log stacking area and surrounding environment, should be swept and disinfected with lime powder or bleaching powder to kill insects and sterilize. Mushroom logs should be spaced out, turned promptly, pierced and ventilated promptly, and management should be strengthened to improve the mushrooms' own ability to resist pests and diseases. Domestic waste, discarded mushroom logs, feces, and drains around the site must be strictly cleaned up.

3. Correctly master the methods for preventing and controlling mushroom flies. There are mainly four methods for preventing and controlling mushroom flies: spraying, injection, digging out, and trapping:

① Spraying. Spraying is a key measure for killing adult mushroom flies. Spraying insecticide can promptly kill adults and greatly reduce the number of eggs laid by adults. To kill adults, the mushroom-specific insecticide Mushroom Fly Clean can be used. This pesticide has both contact and stomach toxicity, and its efficacy is long-lasting. Generally, spray once before piercing and ventilating, and spray once more when stripping the bags (except for flower shiitake), which can effectively prevent adults from laying eggs again.

② Injection. For mushroom fly larvae causing damage inside the bag logs, a 300-fold dichlorvos solution can be injected into the disease spots, injecting 0.5 to 1 milliliter per cm of diameter, without exceeding the dose.

③ Digging out. This means digging out the disease spots, removing all black sawdust, then applying lime water, and at the same time promptly burning or deeply burying the removed disease-spot sawdust.

④ Trapping. Based on the attraction of mushroom flies to disease spots, select and leave some mushroom logs with relatively severe mushroom fly damage as bait at the artificial mushroom log stacking site, and apply a small amount of carbofuran inside the logs to lure mushroom flies to lay eggs and kill them.