41st Annual Meeting of the Society for Invertebrate Pathology
and 9th International Conference on Bacillus thuringiensis

Since their commercialisation, nematodes have been used against barely more than 2 insects for the first 10 years: Sciarid flies and vine weevils. Since the mid-1990s, however, the market diversity of entomopathogenic nematodes has increased considerably. Specific events resulting in the release of research funds triggered market development like the invasion of Scapteriscus vicinus and Diaprepes abbreviatus in Florida and, more recently, the invasion of the western corn root weevil, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera, in Europe. The sudden resistance of some Cydia-pomonella-populations against the commercial C.-pomonella-Granulose-Virus (CpGV) was spuring research on the use of nematodes against diapausing larvae in Europe. Few markets have been or are currently developed without preceding triggering events. The control of leafminers (Liriomyza spp.) and woodlice (Porcellio scaber and Armadillidium spp.) will probably remain small niches. Other spontaneously developed markets are likely to become bigger in the future, like the control of the hazelnut borer (Curculio nucum), the buprestid Capnodis tenebrionis or the palm weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus. The development of new markets benefits from the awareness in the control potential of EPNs. It is thus a self-inforcing process. With growing competition between companies, they are likely to expand their investment in the development of new markets.