Estimating the incidence of entomopathogenic nematodes in soil by the use of bait insects

Summary

Soil samples were stored and baited in different ways in order to develop a bait method that could estimate the level of steinernematid nematodes in soil in a time efficient way. The method was based on incidence (proportion of samples with a given species of Steinernema). Tenebrio molitor (Coleoptera) larvae were used as bait and it was concluded that: 1) Repeated baiting in a later period improved the bait result; 2) Extension of the bait periods from one to two weeks was not necessary; 3) The precision of the estimated incidence did not improve noteworthy by taking more than 60-80 samples; 4) The minimum time required to analyse one soil sample was 6 minutes.