A New Kind of Casing Material Could Be Used for Controlling Fly Populations in Mushroom Crops

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Research

Authors
Fedai Erler 1
Engin Aslan 2
Ersin Polat 2
Omer Onel 2
1 Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, Akdeniz University, Antalya, Türkiye.
2 Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkiye
Abstract
In Turkiye, sciarid and phorid species are the most common and most damaging insects encountered when growing mushrooms indoors. In the present study, the effectiveness of a newly patented casing soil on the population growth of most common sciarid [Lycoriella ingenua (Dufour)] and phorid [Megaselia halterata (Wood)] species was evaluated by comparing with a commonly used local (conventional) casing soil in two consecutive mushroom growing periods in 2025. Adult emergence and fruit damage rates by the larvae were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the treatments. The results showed that the mean number of emerging adults was significantly reduced by newly patented casing soil application in comparison to conventional casing soil application. In newly patented casing soil applications, reduction in adult emerge of both fly species ranged from 45.6% to 50.5% in the 1st growing period of the study and from 43.32% to 46.1% in the 2nd growing period. Newly patented casing soil application also resulted in significantly lower fruit damage rates in both growing periods (in both fly species: ranging from 9.6% to 10.9% in the 1st growing period and from 7.9% to 9.3% in the 2nd growing period) than the conventional casing soil application (from 18.2% to 21.1% in the 1st growing period and from 21.5% to 23.7% in the 2nd growing period). When both casing soil applications were compared in terms of yield values, there was not any significant difference between the two soil applications in both growing periods. However, the implementation of newly patented casing material resulted in a higher marketable mushroom yield and improved product quality, leading to higher market pricing. Overall findings indicate that newly patented casing soil could contribute to the management of L. ingenua and M. halterata populations in the cultivation of edible mushrooms.
Keywords
Mushroom cultivation
Mushroom flies
Newly patented casing soil
Turkiye.
Subjects
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Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 08 November 2026