Identification and Control of the Oriental Mole Cricket, a Pest of Reishi Mushrooms

The oriental mole cricket (Gryllotalpa orientalis Burmeister) is commonly known as tugou or digou. It belongs to the order Orthoptera, family Gryllotalpidae.

1. Morphology and habits: The adult is 29-31 mm long. The head is conical and dark blackish brown. The pronotum is oval. The forewings are yellowish brown and can extend to the middle of the abdomen; the abdomen is spindle-shaped, blackish brown on the dorsal side and dull yellow on the ventral side, with a pair of relatively long cerci at the tip. The forelegs are specialized as digging legs, and the inner margin of the dorsal side of the hind tibia has 3-4 spines. The nymph resembles the adult in body shape and is grayish black.

There is 1 generation per year, and both adults and nymphs can overwinter. They hide by day and come out at night, are phototactic, and are attracted to organic matter such as horse manure and farmyard manure; during the day they often hide in the mushroom bed compost. Females like to lay eggs on moist riverbanks, in ditches, and in soft compost; the egg stage lasts 20-25 days.

2. Damage: They tunnel and dig galleries in the mushroom bed, destroy the mycelium, and affect mycelial growth. They can also bite the stipes and young primordia, disrupting the normal growth of reishi mushrooms and reducing yield and quality.

3. Control methods

(1) Hand collection or light trapping to kill them.

(2) Poison bait trapping: use 0.25 kg of 57% phoxim and 1.5-2.5 kg of wheat bran, add an appropriate amount of water (until it forms a ball when squeezed in the hand and crumbles when dropped), and scatter it around the mushroom bed in the evening.