Insects soil inhabiting

Flanders KL, Miller JM, Shields EJ. In vivo production of Heterorhabditis bacteriophora Oswego (Rhabditida Heterorhabditidae), a potential biological control agent for soil inhabiting insects in temperate regions. J Econ Entom. 1996 89 373-380. 

To date these nematodes have been shown to be effective at controlling soil-inhabiting insects but their commercial exploitation has been hampered by the cost of their production. 

Heptachlor was in extensive use until the 1970s for the control of certain soil-inhabiting insects that attack com and other field crops, cotton insects, grasshoppers, and for the treatment of crop seeds. Along with other cyclodiene insecticides, heptachlor is uniquely suited for termite control. Since 1988, it has not been used for the control of termites, but it is permitted for commercial use in the United States for fire ant control in power transformers.24 Nonachlor is a by-product created during the manufacture of chlordane and heptachlor. 

A great diversity of animals, having few morphological features in common, exists in the soil and in the litter above it. Some of these are permanent soil inhabitants, whereas others are temporary. Some are burrowing forms but others live either under surface debris or in the soil openings made by natural agencies or by man. In size the individuals vary from the microscopic Protozoa and nematodes to mammals, such as moles, rabbits and woodchucks. There are literally thousands of kinds of animals involved and many thousands of species. For example, Peters (1955) states that there are about 10,000 species of nematodes alone, half of which are free-living. The proportion of these that is found in soil is not known with accuracy, but soil nematode species are abundant. About 1,800 species of earthworms are known, and the arthropod species (principally insects) that spend a part of their lives in soils are even more numerous (Kevan, 1962). 

McFEE My first reaction is that, it is the total amount of acid received that affects the soil. However, to a soil microbiologist or one who is interested in soil insects that inhabit that surface layer, a very high percentage of them are right at the interface between the litter and the mineral soil, the episodal effects could be important. 

The fast acting and volatile polyfluorinated benzylester pyrethroids fenfluthrin and tefluthrin are of interest for household purposes and or for application against soil-inhabiting insect pests. 

In Mexico there exist two major insect pests of corn, an armyworm Laphygma frugiperda (A. S.), which breeds and feeds in the leaf whorls of young corn, and the larvae of certain coleoptera which inhabit the soil and feed upon the roots of the corn plants. Of these two the armyworm is the most important. Its attack is particularly severe on corn grown during the summer but, as it is able to breed continuously, it is a problem in corn grown throughout the year in the tropics. 

There is little published work on the relationship between acid rain and insects. However, Smith et al. (37) point out that a number of damaging forest insects detect and respond to trees under stress. Environmental changes such as acid rain could cause tree stress. The insects that would bear observation would be those that spend all or part of their life cycles on leaves or needles, as that is where injury occurs and substances are leached, or microarthropods inhabit leaf litter and soil. 

The introduction in the early 1970 s of the soil-incorporated, water-soluble systemic insecticide/nematicide aldicarb was regarded as a major advance in the technology of pest control. It eliminated the once prevalent hazard of inadvertent exposure of applicators or inhabitants of nearby dwellings, wildlife, and useful insects to toxic chemicals during spraying or aerial application of pesticides. 

The inhabitants of the soil include the nematodes (the most numerous multicellular animals on Earth), oligochaetes (earthworms), arthropods (crustacea, arachnids, insects), and gastropods (snails). The ecotoxicity tests which have been mostly used to test the effect of biodegradable polymers on solid substrates (such as compost and soil) are the Earthworm Acute Toxicity Test, ISO 11268-1 [76] and the Daphnia (a widespread crustacean) Acute Immobilisation and Reproduction Test [77]. 

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