ABSTRACT
Provided the humidity of the air is within a suitable range, the nematodes are resistant to a variety of environmental conditions, can actively find and penetrate susceptible hosts, and cause up to 100% mortality within a few days. In a field in New Jersey, he observed that Steinernema glaseri killed large numbers of Japanese beetles, Popillia japonica Newn. Steinernematids grow and reproduce on the symbiont of related steinernematids and on certain contaminants but generally they reproduce most prolifically on the primary form of their own species. Cold-tolerant strains will infect Galleria mellonella larvae at a temperature as low as 8 C and infective juveniles injected into the hemocele at 13 C can kill a susceptible host. Field experiments started with Steinernema glaseri, a species which was originally isolated from a soil scarab and therefore most extensively tested against this group of insects. Steinernema and Heterorhabditis species are nematodes parasitic on insects.
