Entomopathogenic Nematodes (Nematoda: Rhabditida) in Slovenia: From Tabula Rasa to Implementation into Crop Production Systems

Abstract

The interest in the use of entomopathogenic nematodes as biological pest control agents has increased exponentially over the past decades. A hundred different laboratories explore these nematodes and their bacterial symbionts in more than 60 countries from every inhabited continent. Despite research breadth that extends from molecular biology to field ecology, the discipline is unified by common interest in biological control. Thirty years ago, the idea of using nematodes to control pest populations was vague promise held by the handful of researchers working with these obscure insect parasites. Today, they are no longer a laboratory curiosity but have begun to gain acceptance as environmentally benign alternatives to chemical insecticides. The entomopathogenic nematodes have proven particularly successful and are now commercially mass-produced in six of the seven continents to treat pest problems in agriculture, horticulture and human husbandry. The ease of mass production and exemption from registration requirenments are the two major reasons for early interest in the commercial developments of entomopathogenic nematodes. However, demonstrations of practical use, particularly in Europe and North America and subsuquently in Japan, China and Australia, spurred developments across the world that have led to the availability of nematodes against pests that were once thought impossible to control. Studies of entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) are nonetheless in many countries of the world limited to laboratory work. The reason for this lies in the fact that nematodes are in such areas still regarded as the so-called alien species, since their presence has not been confirmed in natural environment. The first studies of EPNs in Slovenia began within the project L4-6477-0481-04 in 2004. In Slovenia the Rules on biological plant protection (2006) prohibit introduction of alien species into natural environment. Since until 2007 EPNs were in Slovenia considered as foreign species, all studies had been limited to laboratory experiments. Because we wanted to implement their use in food production in Slovenia, we decided to study the presence of EPNs also in our soil. After discovering these biological agents, Slovenia became one of the countries where the use of nematodes as means of biological protection is sanctioned by law also for outdoors application.