Understanding and Managing Plant-Parasitic Nematodes on Turfgrasses

All nematodes are aquatic animals; those that attack turf live in microscopic fi lms of water surrounding soil particles or in the fl uids inside the plant. The plant-parasitic nematodes that parasitize turfgrasses are all microscopic in size, most ranging from 0.25 to 3 mm in length. For identifi cation and diagnosis, plant-parasitic nematodes are extracted from soil or plant tissue into water and generally observed at 40× magnifi cation or greater.