Mushroom cultivation is a great hobby, but it’s challenging. You must contend with many potential obstacles, like contamination, rival mold, and pests when growing mushrooms. Contamination is devastating, and pests can easily cause it. Below, we’ll go over the specific pests you might need to contend with and a few methods to protect your mushrooms from them.
Why It’s Important to Get Rid of Pests
As we mentioned earlier, pests can contaminate your mushrooms, stunting their growth. Alternately, if you’ve already colonized your mushrooms, pests may land on them and eat them. No one wants mushrooms—edible or medicinal—that maggots and flies have nibbled on. If pests do get into your mushrooms, consider the costs. You’ll have to throw that batch away and possibly buy new substrate or mushrooms altogether. Don’t be wasteful, be aware of the danger of flies and other pests, and act accordingly.
Typical Pests
Below are several kinds of pests to be aware of and protect your mushrooms against. Read on to learn more about them and how they can affect your mycelium and substrate.
Cecide Fly
Cecide flies will rapidly multiply under the proper conditions. They generally thrive in dark, moist environments with indirect sunlight. This type of environment is also what mushrooms need to thrive. Under those conditions, you can expect the number of flies to expand. You rarely see the adult version of this fly, just the larvae. They’re essentially orange or white maggots. They often stick to your equipment and other tools you use for cultivating, and feed on the mycelium, so it’s important to be careful when removing them.
Phorid Fly
These maggots are a creamy white color and feed on mycelium. In the early stages of their life cycle, they practice selective feeding; at that stage, they are tolerable and easy to mitigate. That said, watch out! They will transmit bacterial and fungal diseases to your entire crop when they finally transform into full-blown flies. They are extremely active and erratically hop about, spreading eggs and other debris.
Sciarid Fly
This fly is the most pervasive pest on our list. They eat everything in sight, including compost and mycelium. After feeding for 15 consecutive days, they enter a stage called pupae by spinning a web that wraps them inside. Adult flies hover around various light sources. They have long antennas, gray wings, and a large black thorax. Many also call these flies fungus gnats or manure flies. If you don’t remove them, they will make your mushrooms leathery at best and eat them all at worst.
Nematode Organisms
This one is tricky since nematodes are normally beneficial, soil-dwelling organisms. However, many of them devour fungi that you find in mushroom farms. You can usually detect them easily since they cause mycelium to deteriorate rapidly. If you see these in your colony, you may have failed to sanitize or pasteurize your substrate and tools effectively.
How To Get Rid of These Pests
Now that we fully understand the culprits, where does that leave us? Discover the various ways that you can avoid dealing with them from the start. Check out our methods carefully and implement them where and when you can.
Sterilization
You will attract all pests when you don’t sterilize your tools and mushroom substrate properly. A lacking sterilization process is the leading cause of pest infestations. You could be struggling with a pest contamination problem for several reasons. Your sterilization process might have been too brief. Low temperatures may have ruined your yield, so you’re having to deal with the results. Or, your packaging could be too dense. Any of these things could be the culprit, so be intentional about the sterilization process—go slow. Use the right temperature in the pressure cooker, and pack your mushrooms relatively loosely.
Air Filters and Air Exchange
We certainly need our mushrooms to have fresh air. However, you encourage their death if you keep your mushrooms in the open air without an air filter or even air exchange. Filtration is important for incoming and outgoing airflow. It also prevents contaminants from entering the room and mitigates the spread of airborne diseases by filtering them before they go through the exhaust. Since this is the case, don’t just pay attention to incoming air; instead, ensure that any outgoing air is clean so harmful bacteria can’t spread.
Additionally, you should always keep your grow room fresh, clean, and fully sterilized. Ensure you regularly clean all surfaces, counters, and even your walls. Doing so will help keep the possibility of contamination down.
Insulation
Pests have a hard time getting inside when you insulate your room. No pests will try to eat through fiberglass and other wall materials in your grow room to get to your mycelium. Additionally, if you have a mushroom grow bag, try putting it in a room with plenty of insulation. Trust us; you don’t want any flies to get in and contaminate your whole batch. If you have holes in the walls—even tiny ones—you should fill them and place insulation over them immediately. Insulation also keeps temperatures at levels ideal for mushroom growth without worrying about air leaks.
Double Doors
Installing a set of double doors with overpressure capability is a good way to prevent insects from getting into your grow room. If you have a grow room, install the doors within the entrance. Also, change your clothes and clean your hands before entering the room. Put a sink in between the doors to make the process easier. Having this system in place is a great way to protect your mushrooms against pests.
Pasteurization
One of the most popular sanitation methods requires pasteurizing your soil medium—substrate—before you can grow a fresh crop. This process eliminates most pests, fungi, insects, nematodes, and any other pests you notice living inside your compost. Raise the temperature to 135 degrees for five hours to pasteurize your mushroom compost. Anything higher than this kills good microbes and bacteria you might need for later growth.
You must determine the type of compost you have, as each type requires different pasteurization methods. For instance, you must place straw compost in water before raising its temperature. Compost generally requires dry or wet heat (via steam). Pasteurization protects mushrooms in their early growth phase. Still, it won’t stop pests from outside sources from contaminating your crop. Hence, the other methods on this list are perfect for helping your mushrooms stay protected through their entire lifecycle.
We’ve talked a lot about protecting mushrooms from pests, but what do you do when just starting your mushroom growth journey? You should work with us at Midwest Organics, where we have the best mushroom grow supplies. We take pride in what we do and will be by your side in your mushroom cultivation journey.
