Mushroom Culture

Important Pests of mushrooms and their management

In mushroom cultivation, one commonly comes across certain undesirable microorganisms which appear in spawn bags, spawned composts and cropping beds resulting into spoilage of spawn, hinderance in spread of mycelium during spawn- run period as well as the fruit body formation during cropping period causing reduction in yield and sometimes crop failures. These are also known as contaminants because they are undesirable ones. The contaminants can be divided into three well defined groups :

1. Insects, mites , nematodes and animal pests: Majority of these contaminants are big enough to be seen with naked eyes, whereas some like nematodes are microscopic also .

2. Pathogens: These are the microscopic contaminants that directly attack mushroom fruit bodies and cause economic damage like viruses, bacteria ( Pseudomonas tolassii , P. spp. ), and fungi ( Verticillium fungicola , Mycogone perniciosa, Dactylium dendroides, Trichoderma viride ).

3. Competitor or indicator moulds: Those contaminants, mostly fungi, which compete for food in the substratum along with the mushrooms.

• Following are some of the established vectors or the sources of contamination:

1. Air 2. The mycelium or spawn 3. The substrate or the compost 4. Casing materials 5. Grower or workers. 6. Equipments, containers and tools. 7. Water 8. Insects and animals.