liquid culture of the mollusc-parasitic nematode (Rhabditida: Rhabditidae).

The success of the mollusc-parasitic nematode, (Schneider) Andrássy (Rhabditida: Rhabditidae), as a biological control agent in Europe has led to worldwide interest in phasmarhabditids as biocontrol agents. In this study, the mass culture potential of three phasmarhabditids, namely , and , was assessed. In addition, ten bacterial candidates, consisting of seven associated with slugs and three associated with entomopathogenic nematodes, were investigated. The bacteria were tested for their ability to cause mortality to , as well as to support nematode growth. Initial mortality studies demonstrated that , and spp. (AP3) caused 100% mortality when they were injected into the haemocoel of . However, in growth studies, sp. (AP4) was found to be the most successful bacterium, leading to recovery and reproduction in almost all nematode species, except for . In flask studies, , which showed exceptional growth with sp. (AP1), was chosen for further investigation. The effect of inoculating flasks with different concentrations of sp. (AP1), as well as with different concentrations of , was evaluated by assessing the nematode populations for 14 days. The results indicated that the lowest, 1% (v/v), bacteria inoculation led to higher total nematode and to infective juvenile (IJ) yield, with flasks with the highest IJ inoculum (3000 IJs/ml) having a positive effect on the total number of nematodes and IJs in cultures of . This study presents improvements for the mass-culturing of nematodes associated with molluscs.