Efficacy of coloured sticky traps in capturing mushroom flies (Diptera: Phoridae, sciaridae and scatopsidae)

The present study was carried out in two successive mushroom growing periods in 2014 to determine the effectiveness of three different coloured (yellow, blue and white) sticky traps in capturing mushroom flies; mushroom phorid fly Megaselia halterata Wood (Diptera: Phoridae), mushroom sciarid fly Lycoriella ingenua (Dufour) (Dip.: Sciaridae) and mushroom scatopsids Scatopse spp. (Dip.: Scatopsidae). A total of 24 sticky traps (8 per colour) were used for weekly sampling, and traps were hung about 25-30 cm above the compost bags, at least 40 cm apart from each other. For each of the two shelves of each mushroom production bunk, including 6 compost bags, one trap of each colour was hung, and the traps were replaced with fresh ones at weekly intervals. The results showed that yellow traps captured significantly more adults of L. ingenua than blue and white traps in both growing periods. There were no significant differences between yellow and blue traps in terms of adult catches of M. halterata and Scatopse spp. White traps were the least effective in capturing all fly species tested in both periods. Overall results indicate that yellow and blue colours can be used to enhance the effectiveness of sticky traps in capturing the mushroom flies.