Soil Dwelling Pests Control of soil dwelling pests is one of the most difficult problems in pest management today, and development of environmentally friendly, sustainable control measures for these pests has become a major challenge for researchers in recent years.
Microbial control using insect pathogens provides a promising approach.
There is a series of three papers on prospects for microbial control of scarabs, and one each on prospects for microbial control of Vespula wasps and soil pests in oil-seed rape, respectively. Three papers consider synergistic interactions between insecticides and pathogens, and between different pathogens. There was a paper describing a national survey for diseases of a grass pest, and another on epidemiological models. A major theme to emerge from the workshop was the increasing use of biotechnology in the management of soil dwelling pests. The use of attractants in microbial control was covered in three papers.