Dr. Michael Wolfin

Assistant Research Professor for Entomology

Penn State University. USA

Michael is an Assistant Research Professor in the Entomology Department at Penn State University. He has been a member of the Mushroom Fly Research Team since 2017, and his research has led to the development of attract and kill stations to control mushroom fly populations on mushroom farms. He studies the behavior and chemical ecology of mushroom flies and works to apply this research to develop or improve pest management strategies.

Development of novel IPM methods to control mushroom flies on mushroom farms

My laboratory is investigating a number of different methods to control mushroom flies on mushroom farms. We first described how the mushroom life cycles coordinate with the mushroom growing cycles on farms. We are investigating the most attractive wavelengths of light, and the most effective fly trapping substrates to design more effective monitoring traps, mass killing traps, and attract-and-kill stations. We are investigating the effectiveness of Long Lasting Insecticide Netting (LLINs) to kill mushroom flies, and also the most effective locations for LLINs in rooms. Finally, we are also investigating the effectiveness of biocontrol agents (predatory mites and entomopathogenic nematodes) to kill mushroom fly larvae in compost. I will present laboratory and field studies from our experiments, and present the impacts of our newly designed IPM methods on Pennsylvania mushroom farms.