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Pest control for King Stropharia?

 
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This is my second year growing King Stropharia (or Winecap) mushrooms in the Pacific Northwest (puget sound) area. Last year, my first crop started coming up in mid-May, but this year I'm delighted to find that my patch (a large, outdoor bed of woodchips) is fruiting a little early. Buuuuuut unfortunately, none of the mushrooms that have come up have made it to my table. They've all been chewed to pieces by pests of some kind. I'm thinking slugs? I haven't seen any slugs in action, but the damage to the mushrooms seems consistent with what slugs would do. Here's a picture I took a couple days ago and you can see all these chewed up patches on the baby mushrooms...


So, if they are slugs, what can I do? I had one really crazy idea of maybe putting some road salt down? I know that would be a death knell to plants in an normal garden, but I wonder what effect it would have on a fungus like winecap mushrooms...? Obviously I would like to hear from somebody knowledgeable before I risk destroying my whole mushroom patch this way.

Anybody have any better ideas for pest/slug control?
 
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Location: France, Burgundy, parc naturel Morvan
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Welcome to Permies Keith, good job on the mushrooms. Looking good!
I've started a patch of wine caps this year. I'd cut the bits off that were damaged wash them well and cook what's untouched for now..
Slug control is done by nature in my garden, i see less and less of them. I build a pond, frogs patrol the land at night. There are brush piles for reptiles to hide and hedgehogs. But that takes time to create.
I have been patrolling early mornings and when the sun sets, just snip them in two. People use biological pallets that the slugs eat and die. If you use chemical ones which most people do, it builds up in the predators eating the snails, killing them or reducing fertility, causing a spike in snails in the long run.
There are a lot of topics about slugs on Permies, it's a common problem.
 
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It's time to get the traps out.
Put a nice big lettuce leaf/slice of apple out next to those mushrooms and then go and look at it just after dark, pick off any offenders you find.
Put a flat board down in the area make sure it's nice and damp under it, then lift it during the day (after it's been out all night) and kill anything you find.

You'll need to repeat any trapping activity several times to see an effect.
 
Keith Accisano
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Skandi Rogers wrote:It's time to get the traps out.
Put a nice big lettuce leaf/slice of apple out next to those mushrooms and then go and look at it just after dark, pick off any offenders you find.
Put a flat board down in the area make sure it's nice and damp under it, then lift it during the day (after it's been out all night) and kill anything you find.

You'll need to repeat any trapping activity several times to see an effect.



Okay thanks for the tips! I'll try setting up some damp sheets of cardboard in the next few days
 
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