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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Wooster, Ohio » Application Technology Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #94479
Title: ENTOMOPATHOGENIC NEMATODE HETERORHABDITIS BACTERIOPHORA OUTCOMPETES STEINERNEMA CARPOCAPSAE IN AN INOCULATIVE RELEASE EXPERIMENT

Author
item GREWAL, P - OSU
item Klein, Michael
item TAYLOR, R - OSU

Submitted to: Society of Nematologists Proceedings
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/7/1998
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Successful inoculation (colonization) of entomopathogenic nematodes in agroecosystems and urban landscapes may substantially reduce chemical insecticide inputs. Current efforts with entomopathogenic nematodes focus almost exclusively on their use as innundative biological control agents with little consideration to their subsequent preservation in the environment. We report on the first successful inoculative release of Heterorhabditis bacteriophora in turfgrass on a golfcourse in the Mid-western USA. Both H. bacteriophora and Steinernema carpocapsae were released at the Mohican Hills golfcourse in Jeromesville, Ohio in 1986. We re-isolated H. bacteriophora in May 1998 from the same site and found this species to be widely distributed in the rough. No insecticides had been applied to this site since nematode inoculation. Evidence of nematode recycling and effective suppression of natural populations of Japanese beetle Popillia japonica larvae was obtained. Recent replacement of broad-spectrum chemical insecticides such as chlordane with 'softer' insecticides such as Imidacloprid had created an environment suitable for revisiting the inoculative release strategy for the establishment of biological control agents.