Chapter 12
Entomopathogenic and Insect Parasitic
Nematodes
Javad Karimi and Mahnaz Hassani-Kakhki
12.1 Introduction
In recent decades, modern agriculture in the way of providing global food demands
has challenged by growing problems; these include, but are not limited to, pest
damage, especially invasive species, climate change and an increase in the world
population. An important challenge ahead of the agricultural sector is annual crop
losses due to pests which is expanding worldwide. As a result of the combined
effects of globalization, the easier occurrence of pest invasion happens through the
exchange of pests/infested plant commodities. Also, climate changes help some
insect pest establishes more successfully in the new region. In addition to the effect
of climate change on extension of geographical range of pest, it has been demonstrated that this phenomenon contributes to reduction of soil water availability, shifts
of thermal and moisture on cropping, soil erosion and desertification, which all
means reduction in amount of crop yield (Parry 1992; Kelly and Guo 2007; Kremen
et al. 2012; Oliveira et al. 2014; Zabel et al. 2014). These challenges along with an
increase in world population growth have resulted in more effort to enhance crop
yield per unit of arable area. A common solution is reducing pest losses through
using pesticides. Though the consumption of pesticides has offered significant
economic benefits, evidence indicates that in the long-term, they not only are
producing toxic waste but also induce an increase in soil erosion, development of
pesticides resistance, pest resurgence and replacement of a primary pest by a
secondary one (Heimlich and Ogg 1982; Sabatier et al. 2014; Yadav et al. 2015).
J. Karimi (*)
Department of Plant Protection, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
e-mail: jkb@um.ac.ir
M. Hassani-Kakhki
Department of Plant Protection, School of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad,
Mashhad, Iran
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
J. Karimi, H. Madadi (eds.), Biological Control of Insect and Mite Pests in Iran,
Progress in Biological Control 18, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63990-7_12
481
Entomopathogenic and Insect Parasitic
Nematodes
Javad Karimi and Mahnaz Hassani-Kakhki
12.1 Introduction
In recent decades, modern agriculture in the way of providing global food demands
has challenged by growing problems; these include, but are not limited to, pest
damage, especially invasive species, climate change and an increase in the world
population. An important challenge ahead of the agricultural sector is annual crop
losses due to pests which is expanding worldwide. As a result of the combined
effects of globalization, the easier occurrence of pest invasion happens through the
exchange of pests/infested plant commodities. Also, climate changes help some
insect pest establishes more successfully in the new region. In addition to the effect
of climate change on extension of geographical range of pest, it has been demonstrated that this phenomenon contributes to reduction of soil water availability, shifts
of thermal and moisture on cropping, soil erosion and desertification, which all
means reduction in amount of crop yield (Parry 1992; Kelly and Guo 2007; Kremen
et al. 2012; Oliveira et al. 2014; Zabel et al. 2014). These challenges along with an
increase in world population growth have resulted in more effort to enhance crop
yield per unit of arable area. A common solution is reducing pest losses through
using pesticides. Though the consumption of pesticides has offered significant
economic benefits, evidence indicates that in the long-term, they not only are
producing toxic waste but also induce an increase in soil erosion, development of
pesticides resistance, pest resurgence and replacement of a primary pest by a
secondary one (Heimlich and Ogg 1982; Sabatier et al. 2014; Yadav et al. 2015).
J. Karimi (*)
Department of Plant Protection, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
e-mail: jkb@um.ac.ir
M. Hassani-Kakhki
Department of Plant Protection, School of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad,
Mashhad, Iran
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
J. Karimi, H. Madadi (eds.), Biological Control of Insect and Mite Pests in Iran,
Progress in Biological Control 18, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63990-7_12
481