Integrated Pest Management:
Attract and Kill Stations
The vent windows on mushroom farms can be adapted to be attract and kill stations on mushroom farms. Below is an example of an attract and kill station from a field experiment. Flies emerge from the compost and are attracted to the sunlight coming into the growing room through an electrostatically charged screen. The screen is loaded with insecticide, and flies are killed when they touch the screen as they attempt to leave the growing room, preventing them from invading homes and mating to produce the next generation of flies. Attract and kill stations are particularly attractive because no pesticide is applied to the crop using this method.
Electrostatic Screens
Electrostatically charged screens were tested in laboratory assays as a delivery method for powdered insecticides. These screens were an excellent delivery method for powdered insecticides because they adhere to the screen. This reduces the amount of pesticide necessary for control because less is wasted falling off the screen.
Field Experiments
Originally, orange filter covered the vent windows to restrict airflow, filter disease and prevent flies from exiting the room. Flies were able to penetrate the filter and leave the room. These filters were replaced with electrostatic screen. The electrostatic screen let more light in the room, which made it even more attractive to the flies. Screens were monitored weekly and pesticide was applied as needed.
Fly Mortality
Within 2 weeks, over 900,000 dead flies accumulated on the attract and kill stations on one window in one growing room on the test farm. In the two weeks that followed, over 600,000 dead flies accumulated. By early December, 99.9% of the mushroom flies were eliminated from the test farm. These experiments were conducted from August-December, which is peak mushroom fly season.
Experiments were repeated across multiple mushroom farms with varying growing protocols and architectures. Attract and Kill stations have been used to reduce fly populations and pesticide usage across the mushroom industry!
Above and below are examples of attract and kill stations being used on farms!
Growers are quickly adopting this new technology on their farms!
