Chemical and Biological Control of Plant Parasitic Nematodes Infecting Agronomic Plants

Dear Colleagues,

Plant parasitic nematodes (PPNs) cause significant economic losses in agronomic plants all over the world. They have developed strategies to overcome unfavorable environmental conditions or the lack of a host plant. Some nematode species can survive for many years in soil and root debris in the absence of a crop host in a quiescent stage, while others have a wide host range (including weeds) and they can renew the inoculum from season to season. Over the past 30-40 years, the control of PPNs has been based primarily on the use of soil fumigants and organophosphate and carbamate nematicides. The consequence of the extensive use of chemicals was the limited use of other means of control such as biological agents. Although chemicals were very effective in rapidly killing PPNs, many of those chemicals were removed from the market due to the increasing concern about environmental contamination and human risks. The lack of viable control means for PPNs has spurred the industry to develop new molecules with nematicidal action and also to pay attention to biocontrol agents such as fungi and bacteria. The objective of this Special Issue is to include in a volume the current knowledge about either chemical or biological control of PPNs infecting the main agronomic plants.

Dr. Ioannis Giannakou
Guest Editor

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• biological control
• chemical control
• plant parasitic nematodes
• nematicides
• biocontrol agents