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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Wooster, Ohio » Application Technology Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #92885
Title: FIRST SUCCESSFUL INOCULATIVE RELEASE OF AN ENTOMOPATHOGENIC NEMATODE HETERORHABDITIS BACTERIOPHORA

Author
item GREWAL, P - OSU
item Klein, Michael

Submitted to: Plant Nematode Interactions
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/8/1998
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Successful inoculation (colonization) of entomopathogenic nematodes in agroecosystems and the urban landscape may substantially reduce chemical insecticide inputs. Current efforts with entomopathogenic nematodes focus almost exclusively on their use as inundative biological control agents, with little consideration given to their subsequent retention in the environment. We report the first successful inoculative release of Heterorhabditis bacteriophora in turfgrass on a golf course. The nematodes were first released on the Mohican Hills Golf Course in Jeromesville, Ohio in 1986 and 1987. We re-isolated the nematodes in August, 1997 from the same site and found them to be widely distributed in the rough. No insecticides had been applied to this site since nematodes inoculation. Evidence of nematode recycling and effective suppression of natural population of Japanese beetle, Popillia japonica, larvae was obtained. Replacement of broad-spectrum chemical insecticides with "softer" insecticides has created an environment suitable for revisiting the inoculative strategy for the establishment of biological control agents.