Article,
Pests of mushrooms in Cote d’ivore: the case of Volvariella volvacea
International Journal of Agronomy and Agricultural Research (IJAAR), Vol. 6 (No. 4): p. 251-255 (April 2015)
Abstract
The mushroom Volvariella volvacea, growing on dead palm trees, is attacked by pests that cause more or less important damages making them unmarketable. This study was performed in order to explore and identify these pests and to determine the extent of damages caused by them. Mushrooms harvested from dead palm trees and those sampled in the markets have permitted the determination of these pests and the assessment of the damages caused by them. Three kinds of pests were identified for the mushrooms harvested from the dead palm trees as
well as for the mushrooms sampled in the markets. Those are: larvae of lepidoptera, maggots of flies and millipedes. The larvae of lepidoptera mainly attack the caps of the mushrooms. The damages consisted of bite marks (15% of cases), perforations (50% of cases) or destruction of more than half of the mushrooms (35% of cases). Myriapods are found mainly in the mushroom feet. They perforate and lodge there. Maggots of flies mainly attack mushrooms’ buttons or eggs at early stages. Their action usually stops development of the
mushroom’s cap, foot and volva. Signs of pest attacks were observed on mushrooms harvested from the dead palm trees (39.29%) and sampled in the markets (40.88%). Maggots of flies, larvae of lepidoptera and millipedes cause respectively 10.27%, 4.6% and 0.91% losses of mushrooms harvested from the dead palm trees. For mushrooms sampled in markets, attacks of maggots, larvae and millipedes cause respectively 7.56%, 23.53% and 11.20% losses.
