38th Annual Meeting of the Society for Invertebrate Pathology

If knowledge of environmental conditions associated with naturally occurring entomopathogenic nematode populations is sufficient, then crop management practices might be designed to encourage presence and persistence of these biological control agents and long-term pest suppression. We have focused our research on naturally occurring entomopathogenic nematode populations in a vegetable production area in Ohio with a diverse mixture of crops, and insect pests, and high organic matter soils. A systematic survey of 600 sampling sites representing 6 different habitat classes in and around the production area identified 41 sites that had endemic steinernematid or heterorhabditid populations. The habitat class of the positive sites varied, 22 were in grassy field borders within the vegetable production area, and the remainder were outside of the production area: 10 in forest, 4 in residential lawns, 3 in field crops (corn and soybeans), 2 in successional shrub land, and none from within the vegetable fields. Results of a multivariate statistical analysis on soil food web structure, based on free-living nematodes in soil samples, and soil physical and chemical properties at each of the sites will be discussed with respect to their relative importance in explaining presence and abundance of these endemic entomopathogenic nematode populations.