Four Practical Methods for Pest Control in Edible Mushrooms

For indoor cultivation of edible mushrooms, doors, windows and ventilation holes should be covered with 60-mesh fine gauze to prevent adult fungus gnats, mushroom mosquitoes and other adults from entering the room and causing damage. Adopting the "four kills" can effectively control edible mushroom pests.

Trapping and killing adults: Adult fungus gnats, mushroom mosquitoes and similar insects are phototactic. You can set up black light lamps or fluorescent lamps, hang sticky boards around the lamps, or place boxes of dichlorvos solution under the lamps, so that the adults touch the pesticide and are poisoned.

Chemical fumigation: Under sealed conditions, fumigate with 2-3 tablets of aluminum phosphide per cubic meter of space to eliminate indoor sources of insects.

Spraying insecticide: If pests are found before mushroom fruiting, spray the bed surface with a 500-fold trichlorfon solution or a 1000-fold decis solution to kill the insects.

Treating the substrate to kill insects: For every 50 kg of growing substrate, use 15 ml of dicofol, dilute with 10 kg of water, and spray it evenly onto the substrate, mixing the substrate while spraying. After spraying, pile it up for 3 days to eliminate insect sources in the substrate. Alternatively, mix into the substrate a 500-fold solution of 40% phoxim or a 1000-fold solution of 2.5% decis; both have very good insecticidal effects.