Predatory Nematodes

[Derald]

Anyone in the group use them?

[jess1990]

my dad has used nematodes on his allotment and has not seen a slug or snail since!!

[Steve Peek]

cucumber and bean beetle in particular), also for any help with chigger control. Steve

[songbird]

sorry, i have no experience growing nematodes other than what have shown up in terrariums. :)

nematodes are always around. i think you're fine once you get an area innoculated. short of major interruption in the soil (severe drought, salt-water flooding, some other kind of poison or sterilizing event) i doubt you will need to worry about it again.

the basic idea of biological control is to accept some losses because you need the target species around to feed the predatory species. sooo...

keep growing the succeptible plants and some of those will have some root knot nematode action (even if you can't see it) and that will keep the predators around.

i don't think you'll need any thing more fancy than that.

songbird

[songbird]

Derald wrote: ...

if they did they would be extinct? no?

let me rephrase. you want to supply a food source for the root knot nematodes so they can be prey for the predatory nematodes, so simply put, grow the plants you've already been growing that are succeptible to the root knot nematodes...

i don't think you need to get any more fancy than this. which might appeal to your idea of simplicity and lack of planning and further benefit of low budget.

if you really do want to get more fancy that would involve growing root knot succeptible plants in sterile soil and innoculating them with root knot nematodes. then you'd have your source of food for the predators.

peace and happy TG,

songbird

[songbird]

mix the new soil in with the existing soil that is already spiked before planting, this will help avoid creating any local population imbalances.

i suspect a part of this isn't true, but i cannot say which part.

you've fixed that now.

songbird

[songbird]

i'd also put them on the surrounding pathways and lawn and ask the neighbors if they wanted any. as someday perhaps they'll want to exchange plants.

the medium they are sent on may be dry and divisible and so could be cut up and used as needed. the dry media probably has a shelf life of a year or more.

if instead they are sending live critters then all bets are off for how long they can be stored or relied upon, but there is a good chance that if left to dry out they will make cysts or lay eggs or whatever this species does when conditions get unfavorable. then you can store those for a period of time and break them out when needed...

i'm glad to hear things have improved from such a simple change. i'll keep hoping that it will be sustainable. i think it will be especially considering you keep your gardens going and there isn't much fallow time.

i'll always be interested to hear how it goes. :)

the sad thing i'm finding whenever i try to get decent and suitable information on any plant or critter is that the books at the library don't have much depth (they are written for the popular audience not the researcher). often i have to wait a bit for the universities to release a textbook and often those are not full of the information i'm after either as they are written from the perspective of whoever is doing current research to suit some industry sponsor or ...

actual, in depth, basic knowledge is very hard to come by. distilling the parts from several textbooks often gets me close, but i still feel there is so much of a gap at times even then (besides the fact that my brain does not hold some information well at all (scientific names, formulas and certain abstractions)). i do much better with procedural information and ...

if i get a chance i'll read up on nematodes and see if i can figure out what you are after. i have all winter and an empty reading list. :)

songbird

[songbird]

different species?

songbird