I talked about the most important pests of oyster mushrooms and substrate, namely parasitic insects, their larvae and maggots, in a separate article.
There is also an article on how to get rid of them.
There are more rare pests; until you see them, you may not even guess who they are. I'm talking about cats and slugs now.
In my greenhouse I came across the following phenomenon: the caps of oyster mushrooms from the edges seemed to be cut along the gills by 3-4 mm.
I couldn't even figure out what happened until I saw the cat.
He bit the edge of the hat with his teeth and pulled it towards himself until he reached the edge, and so he tore the edges apart.
Do slugs eat mushrooms?
If the mushrooms look like they have been chewed or partially eaten, this is the work of slugs.
They most often cause damage on mushroom farms in rural areas or home growing rooms. Where there are vegetable gardens, vineyards, farm greenhouses for plants.
A cheap way to combat slugs is to use table salt - it should be poured in a thin path in places where these snails can enter the room.
However, everything is not so simple. Mushroom growers are increasingly complaining that salt does not stop slugs when there are too many of them.
If you don’t see the slugs themselves, but only the results of their work, as in the photo, then there are still few of them.
I know one mushroom grower who poured salt on the floor near the racks of the shelves. And the slugs crawled only on the floor; they could not climb onto the shelves.
I asked why he needed slugs. He claimed that they eat any microorganisms on the floor, including mold spores that have begun to grow.
But this is the only case in my practice; all the other mushroom growers who have had slugs are not at all happy with them.
I have never seen snails on oyster mushrooms.
Although, slugs themselves belong to the same class as snails - mollusks. The difference between them is that snails have a developed external shell, while slugs have only an internal shell (notum).
If you have a photo of a snail eating oyster mushrooms, please send it to me. The email address is below on the page.
Among chemical preparations, you can use Slimax - as indicated in the instructions. Or just type a query on Google “How to get rid of slugs.”
