Estimating the incidence of entomopathogenic nematodes in soil by the use of bait insects

Abstract

Soil samples were stored and baited in different ways in order to develop a bait method that could estimate the level of steinernematid nematodes in soil in a time-efficient way. The method was based on incidence (proportion of samples with a given species of Steinernema). Tenebrio molitor (Coleoptera) larvae were used as bait and it was concluded that: i) repeated baiting in a later period improved the bait result; ii) extension of the bait periods from 1-2 weeks was not necessary; iii) the precision of the estimated incidence did not improve by taking more than 60-80 samples; iv) the minimum time required to analyse one soil sample was 6 min. © Koninklijke Brill NV, 2004.