Abstract

Man's attempts to control particular insects through the manipulation of their nematode parasites had a spectacular, although short-lived, beginning in the 1930s and 1940s with the work of R. W. Glaser and his associates who pitted Neoaplectana glaseri against the Japanese beetle. The beetle won. There followed a quarter of a century during which further studies of this nature were largely shunned, and arthropod control was dominated by chlorinated hydrocarbons and organic phosphates. With the realization that insect populations may become resistant to such once highly lethal chemicals, and that these substances have far-reaching deleterious influences on the ecosystems as a whole, our thinking has turned again to a consideration of the various biological approaches to insect control. Thus, in just the last decade, there has been a resurgence in work directed toward the practical application of Glaser's principles to the control of insects of medical, veterinary, and agricultural importance.