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ABSTRACT
Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) are agents that can be used for the biological control of pests associated with pesticides in a tank mix. Compatibility studies need to be conducted to analyse which products are compatible with EPNs. The survival of infective juveniles (IJs) of four species of EPNs (Steinernema, Heterorhabditis) was determined after exposure to eight chemical herbicides. The effect of direct IJs exposure to herbicides for 1, 4 and 24 h was tested in a Petri dish at 15, 20 and 25 °C. The study showed that Steinernema kraussei was the most tolerant among the tested EPN species, while S. carpocapsae was the most sensitive to all tested herbicides. The lowest mortality of IJs was at 15 °C (19%). Our investigation showed, overall, the herbicides negatively affected EPN survival. The results confirmed that the compatibility is a species-specific characteristic, influenced by the temperature and time of exposure. Application of two different control ingredients (insecticide and herbicide) at the same time would reduce cost and time consumption in pest/weed control.
Acknowledgments
A portion of the present research was funded by Horticulture No. P4-0013-0481, a programme funded by the Slovenian Research Agency, and a portion of the research was founded within the Professional Tasks from the Field of Plant Protection, a programme funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment of the Republic of Slovenia. I thank Gareth Martin (Becker Underwood) for providing the commercial EPN strains and Nika Bajc for technical assistance.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.