COSPONSOR – RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, AND DEPLOYMENT OF PHORID FLY MITIGATION RESOURCES
 
Dear Colleagues –
 
Pennsylvania leads the nation in mushroom production, accounting for over half of all mushrooms grown in the United States.  Over 500 million pounds of mushrooms are grown in Chester County each year. 
Southern Chester County has seen an increase in phorid flies – a pest that feeds on mushroom mycelium.
 
Historically, outbreaks of phorid flies were addressed with Diazinon.  However, the EPA banned the use of Diazinon in the mid-2000’s, and to date, no other pesticide has shown similar effectiveness.  Swarms of these flies have led to significant quality-of-life issues in residential areas across Southern Chester County.  For many local residents, the challenges presented by phorid flies are many times greater than those presented by more widely-known agricultural pests such as stinkbugs and the spotted lanternfly.
 
For over ten years, Penn State researchers have been working with mushroom farmers to find a solution that addresses phorid flies.  Recently, this critical research has pointed toward the use of several mitigation techniques – mites, nematodes, and netting originally developed to control mosquitoes. 
 
With this in mind, I will be introducing legislation directing the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture to make $3 million available from already appropriated funds to assist with the immediate remediation of phorid flies.  Funding will be targeted towards broad deployment of the aforementioned mitigation measures to test their efficacy on a broad scale, along with continued research into other remediation efforts.  
 
I would greatly appreciate your support of this initiative to deal with a very important quality-of-life issue in Chester County.