Tackling mushroom phorid fly infestations with a multipronged biocontrol approach

Image credit: Bigstock

Image credit: Bigstock

Problem

How can crop damages caused by mushroom phorid flies and their irritating infestations of nearby rural developments be reduced without using chemical insecticides?

  • Chester County, Pennsylvania, is the locus of the state's sixty-seven mushroom farms that produce 64 percent of domestic mushrooms.
  • The EPA banned the most commonly used pesticide for mushroom phorid flies in 2012 after finding it made the fungi toxic to humans.

Findings

Researchers tested two approaches to biologically controlling the reproduction and movement of the pests by establishing a mushroom phorid fly colony--likely the only such experimental colony in the world.

Impact

Biopesticides can provide immediate and future solutions:

  • Short-term solutions use pheromones to confuse male flies, preventing them from mating and keeping the population from building up inside mushroom houses.
  • Long-term solutions use biopesticides that are already approved for other plants and provide a nontoxic remedy at the source of the flies.

Related Research Areas:  Integrated Health, Environmental Resilience, and Advanced Agricultural and Food Systems

Research Credit

Team

Participating Departments

Competitive Funding

  • Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture; American Mushroom Institute

Federal and State Appropriations

  • USDA NIFA Hatch Projects PEN04608 and PEN04609, Accession #1010032 and #1010058

Emerging Discoveries

Office for Research and Graduate Education

Address

217 Agricultural Administration Building
University Park, PA 16802-2600

Office for Research and Graduate Education

Address

217 Agricultural Administration Building
University Park, PA 16802-2600