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 67 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 which are already approved for other plants and provide a non-toxic remedy at the source of the flies.