Desiccation and cold storage of Galleria mellonella cadavers and effects on in vivo production of Steinernema carpocapsae.

Background: Direct application of insect cadavers infected with entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN) can successfully control target pest insects. Little is known about the effects of environmental factors (desiccation and temperature) on the production process for infective juveniles (IJ) in insects.

Results: We examined the effects of desiccation time and cold storage (6.