beneficial nematodes

Beneficial nematodes...Who all uses them? What do you use them for? How do you use it? Do you use them as a preventative or use after you see pests? I'm trying to decide if my various bugs would benefit from adding this to the garden. I know there are bad nematodes as well...any chance that adding the good ones brings the bad ones?
Thanks!

I use slug nematodes to kill and eat the slugs in my beds .
it's very good . This is my second year of using a three stage programme set for 6 weeks apart . there is at present no evidence of slugs or snails in my 3 foot raised beds but there is a bit of slug chew on some of the lower leaves on the climbing beans set out in mother natures own brand of soil.
I'm told that usually after three or four years the slugs will have all but disappeared for at least another seven years because of the large quantity of living nematode control in the beds .

Next year I hope to move to also using carrot fly nematode controls as they also wallop other pests as effectively


If I spend 2p on protecting each of around 500 carrots It will be far cheaper than buying other carrot fly controls even more so if there is a residual effect building up as well .

The nematode control I buy can be put on in a watering can using a fine rose or it can be sprayed on using a low pressure pump up sprayer with long spray lance on a long tube that has never ever seen any disinfectants or weed killers put through any of it.

I haven't done it yet, but we plan on putting nematodes all over our YARD! We have a lot of slugs. The difficulty is that you need to keep the area good and wet until the nematodes have a chance to burrow into the soil and get.... ummm... going. A good side effect is that without the slugs, the moles won't come and dig up your yard too

Good luck.

I found this youtube on beneficial nematodes and how they use it in a green house. impressed that they don't use any insecticides.

Pesticide Free: Beneficial Nematodes

a site for many organic pest control including beneficial nematodes.

Beneficial Insects & Organisms

HA!  I just posted about these in the Grubs thread!  Thanks for the links!  I'll look at them as soon as I get a chance.

Have you tried them yet, has55?

CC

CapeCoddess wrote:HA!  I just posted about these in the Grubs thread!  Thanks for the links!  I'll look at them as soon as I get a chance.

Have you tried them yet, has55?

CC

not in the past. I'm on my way to buy some from four season nursery or the feed store here in denton, tx

I ordered some on Amazon and they will be here by next Thursday. I'll be able to spread them out over the weekend. It's supposed to rain here this weekend so it should be perfect. Let's compare notes after a few weeks, has55, and see how they did.

CC

ok, sounds good.
Anyone knows how to grow or raise nematodes? Trying to cut cost. I found something, but it not too clear. Had to go out of the box for this info


Culturing beneficial nematodes

here's a photo of the packaging of the beneficial nematodes that I received this week from Amazon. The website is posted on the bottom right.

Three years ago I saw maggot damage in my some of my carrots and onions.  I applied beneficial nematodes I bought from Planet Natural.  I have seen no damage since.

has55 wrote:ok, sounds good.
Anyone knows how to grow or raise nematodes? Trying to cut cost. I found something, but it not too clear. Had to go out of the box for this info


Culturing beneficial nematodes

anyone else have any idea about how to raise nematodes? thought I would put it out there again.

I went back and reviewed the instruction on that cannabis site for growing and harvesting nematodes. the dots finally connected for me after several readings.  The key is having a starter kit. after that you can keep growing the nematodes forever with yeast, oatmeal , etc... 
I went to the aquaculture store and found the kit cost 12.00...that's cheap. I also have sent a email to them for further in-depth questions, will post when I find out answers. 
when i reviewed other sites like ARBICO Organics  for just nematodes it quickly got expensive for just their smallest size: Backyard size, 1/2 garden size, 5 million nematodes for 1600 sq ft, 2nd day air.. below is their cost list:





on the surface it seem a comfortable pricing, but since it must be sent 2nd day air the simple 16.00 change to 36.00. that's very expensive to me, esp if you need to do it more than once. see below

this is why I exploring doing it myself to lower the cost like i'm doing with growing my own food for self and friends, raising earthworm, vermicomposting, composting tea and later more intense composting and harvesting seeds as many do on this forum. this would allow me to make many mistake and also flood the SFG bed and yard with beneficial nematodes for almost nothing. I hope I can pull this off. I noticed that many of the insects that are enemy to our plants either live in the soil or start off in infancy in the soil.

I read thru you link for the cannabis site back when you first posted it and thought it was very interesting.  The only thing that stops me from trying this is that it could fail and you have to start over.  If you get the kit, can you divide it up so if you fail you can start over without more expense?

CC

CapeCoddess wrote:I read thru you link for the cannabis site back when you first posted it and thought it was very interesting.  The only thing that stops me from trying this is that it could fail and you have to start over.  If you get the kit, can you divide it up so if you fail you can start over without more expense?

CC

good question. I'll asked that when they respond to my email.

I found another link by Michigan State University Extension,
Rearing nematodes: Do-it-yourself guide
 and another older link with testing.

Beneficial Nematodes - They Work!

this site had a video how to do it free, it out of the UK. It's the 2nd video on this page

slug control using nematodes for FREE!

grey fun and very informative video from orcin on nematodes. I will start growing them and apply them in the garden, yard and around the base of the house for termite control. Sanderson, you showed us pictures of severe termite damage to your SFG beds. It made me looks at the nematodes  as a great solution for that problem for my property. This will go beyond the SFG Journey.

this is one one the best video that explains method and outcome that I seen in a while. 

got this info about nematodes from page 17 from the "compost tea brewing manual" . This is a good way to eliminate the bag guys in the soil that attack our plants, but get the good guys that will destroy the insect pest that harbor over in the winter.
I always wondered if there was sufficient nematodes in compost or compost tea.


Nematodes.

Like protozoa, nearly all the nematodes in the compost will be extracted in good tea making machines because enough energy is applied to the compost to pull these organisms out of the compost. Dripping water through compost is not adequate for extraction, however. Good compost normally contains fifty to several hundred beneficial nematodes per gram, which can be extracted into the tea. All these nematodes should be beneficial; only poor compost would contain root-feeding nematodes.



Nematodes play a number of different roles in soil, and it is important to recognize that while one group of nematodes is detrimental to plant growth, most nematodes in soil are beneficial for plant growth.



There are four major functional groups of nematodes in soil:



• Plant-feeders are the “bad guys”, and consume root material, reducing plant growth and yield,



• Bacterial-feeders consume bacteria, releasing N, P, S, etc which are then available for plant uptake,



• Fungal-feeders consume fungi, releasing N, P, S, etc which are available for plant uptake, and



• Predatory nematodes consume other nematodes and keep the population numbers of the bad guys, and the good guys, under control. Too many bacterial-feeders could reduce bacterial populations below the level needed to suppress disease, retain nutrients, decompose residues, or build soil aggregates. Thus predators are important controls on the foodweb system.



Compost that has reached high enough temperatures for long enough (131F or 55C for three full days in all parts of the pile), or been processed completely by earthworms (surface contact, or passage through the nematode digestive system) will not contain root-feeding nematodes. Care is needed to choose compost that is mature in order to have a good set of beneficial nematodes in the compost. Awareness of postproduction

contamination is also required.



Beneficial nematodes do not start to grow in a compost pile until after temperature drops back to less than approximately 115° F (45° C).



Both predatory and most fungal-feeding nematodes are killed if the pile is

turned too often. Thus, the pile has to mature, unturned, at least two to three weeks AFTER temperature has dropped below 115° F (45° C) in order for there to even be a hope that it will contain adequate nematode numbers.

Then my cold pile should just be TEEMING with them!

Thanks, Has55!

I added these pictures because I found some past links were taken down. This way it's on our forum for future use.

How to use your nematodes.

Interesting!  Somehow I missed this thread before.  I never realized cultivating nematodes is possible (beyond a commercial venture).

To answer the question posed in the OP, when I lived in Arizona, I used beneficial nematodes to combat an established infestation of brown ticks in my back yard. Purchased from Arbico, two applications, during the summer monsoon season, were enough to rid the yard of the ticks, as well as excess numbers of crickets and flies.

Good stuff; thanks for posting the video, Has!    I guess the stench from the bucket would be a small price to pay for a valuable, sustainable resource...