The Influence of Pesticides on the Infectivity of Entomopathogenic Nematodes

It is known that entomopathogenic nematodes rarely live in fields where pesticides and fertilizers are used. Because they are organisms with a high potential for biological and integrated pest control the thesis tried to determine the influence of pesticides on the infectivity and mortality of selected nematodes: Steinernema feltiae, S. arenarium and S. kraussei in water solution of some pesticides. The results are that preparations Vydate (a. i. oxamyl) and Sulka (a. i. sulphur) have the highest negative influence on both characteristics. These pesticides cause a mortality of 94.3 - 99.9 % and reduce infectivity by about 50 {--} 75 % (level 3). The following preparations may be identified as having higher potential for infectivity reduction: above all, Starane 250 EC (fluroxypyr), Sumithion super (fenithrothion), and Novozir MN 80 (mancozeb); on the other hand, Treflan 48 EC (trifluralin) significantly increases mortality. Another important observation is a fact that infectivity is significantly influenced only by concentration of pesticides, not by exposure time. During an experiment with enhacement of resistance to oxamyl (Vydate) I falling mortality and increasing infectivity of entomopathogenic nematodes were observed after five rounds