Survival of Infective Juveniles of Entomopathogenic Nematodes Under Storage and Their Infectivity Against Galleria mellonella and Spodoptera litura

Commercialization of entomopathogenic nematodes requires storage of infective juveniles (IJs) in a viable condition for longer periods. Survival and infectivity of IJs of Steinernema tami, S. abbasi, S. carpocapsae, Heterorhabditis indica and H. bacteriophora were tested on storage in distilled water. Effect of ageing of IJs on pathogenicity was evaluated and compared with freshly hatched IJs of the genera Steinernema and Heterorhabditis. S. tami and S. carpocapsae survived up to 40 days without mortality and loss in infectivity and S. abbasi with 2% mortality. Heterorhabditis spp. survived up to 20 days without mortality and declined to 60% and 20% after 40 and 60 days of storage, respectively. Ageing effects on infectivity were elucidated against Galleria mellonella and Spodoptera litura. Infectivity was not altered in unstorcd and stored IJs of Steinernema spp. whereas infectivity varied in case of Heterorhabditis spp. in which case fresh IJs were non-infective compared to stored IJs.