This chapter outlines the historical records of insect nematology before highlighting the major groups of beneficial nematodes. These include entomopathogenic nematodes to use against insect pests, slug nematodes to manage mollusc pests, entomophilic nematodes such as Thripinema to manage thrips,...

Sustainability and the increased use of integrated pest management strategies are now the new emerging strategies in global agriculture and a direct result of the over and indiscrimate use of pesticides in the past. In this context, this chapter sheds light on beneficial nematodes (focusing on...

Photorhabdus spp. are entomopathogenic bacteria that mutualistically associate with heterorhabditid nematodes. This chapter is devoted to reporting the toxic secretions of Photorhabdus bacteria and their efficacy against crop insect pests. Yet, because these bacteria are fairly similar to members...

This chapter summarizes the current status of entomophilic nematodes (EPNs) as biological control agents (BCAs) against important Chinese agricultural pests in integrated pest management and some important research advances of EPNs in controlling pests in China. The present drawbacks in research on ...

This book contains chapters that capture the full breadth of the basic and applied information on entomopathogenic (EPNs) and slug parasitic nematodes (SPNs) that are used or have potential in the management of insect pests, molluscs and/or other researched targets such as plant parasitic...

Although the host range of entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) includes more than 200 insect species, nematodes have only been marketed successfully for a small fraction of these insects. Accordingly, in this chapter, lepidopteran insect pests representing different agroecosystems are selected to...

Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) are among one of the safer biological control agents used for the control of coleopteran insects. The efficacy of EPNs is influenced by several factors such as host-finding mechanism, adaptability to environment and the presence of host range, etc. The application...

Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) such as Steinernema and Heterorhabditis are considered important biological control agents that are being exploited against a variety of crop insect pests of economic importance, such as insects in the order Diptera. Like nematode hosts of other insect orders, many ...

The critical factors in making entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) successful biological control agents of crop insect pests are their production and application technology. EPNs can be mass produced in vivo (baiting technique on insects) and commercially in vitro (solid/liquid media) and utilized...

This chapter provides an overview on the status of EPN research in India, which includes their biodiversity, efficacy against different crop insect pests, compatibility with existing integrated pest management (IPM) practices, recent development in mass production, formulation and application, and...