Biological Control of the Sciarid Fly, Lycoriella mali (Diptera: Sciaridae) Using Steinernema carpocapsae in a Button Mushroom Cultivation House

Abstract

We used the entomopathogenic nematode, Steinernema carpocapsae, for the effective biological control of Lycoriella mali during Agaricus bisporus cultivation. The concentrations of two S. carpocapsae products distributed in Korea were 6 × 10 and 2.5 × 10 m respectively. As a result of investigating the density of A. bisporus larvae in a rice straw medium and soil in an A. bisporus cultivation house, the mean numbers per 30 cm were 0.8 and 22.2, respectively, and A. bisporus larvae were detected mainly in the soil. The control effects after once spraying S. carpocapsae at 6 × 10 and 2.5 × 10 m was higher at the 14th day than at the 7th day. Therefore, we investigated the control effect after twice spraying of 6 × 10 and 2.5 × 10 m at the 14th day. The control effects after this spraying were 51.9% and 96.8%, respectively, and the control effect of spraying at 2.5 × 10 m was better than at 6 × 10 m. The control effect of diflubenzuron WP was lower than 50%.