Across the corn belt depending on time of year | Nematodes are an extremely diverse and very specialized group of organisms
The ones you are referring to are free living in the soil and only feed on organic matter, fungi and other soil microbes. They don't attack insects or plants.
There are plant parasitic nematodes which only attack plants. They do not attack insects or eat microbes in the soil.
There are animal parasitic nematodes which attack mammals. We dose our livestock and pets for nematodes which live in their GI tract. Heartworm in dogs is a specialized nematode which attacks only dogs and other canines. It is spread by mosquitos and the list go on. Many parasites of humans and other animals are specialized nematodes.
Biocontrol nematodes are insect parasitic nematodes and only feed on insects. They do not feed on plants, soil microbes or anything else. The soil stage of biocontrol nematodes only job is to find insect hosts and they do not feed at all, but live on fat reserves.
There are more species of nematodes in the world than any other organism including insects.
It is easy to be confused with such variation. |
Biocontrol nematodes - Rootworm - Persistent Biocontrol
