Breeding Nematodes

Hey everybody, I've been looking into various homegrown pest control measures, and just stumbled upon this EHow article on breeding your own population of predatory nematodes to kill off pest larvae in the soil.

http://www.ehow.com/how_8503480_breed-predatory-nematodes.html

As you see, they essentially limit themselves to just grabbing piles of compost and tossing it in the water to form a primordial ooze. I'm sure it allows for nematodes to grow, but does it get any more exact than that? How do you know you're growing the right ones, and not pest nematode species as well? Is it the fact that there's no living plants in the compost, only dead ones, therefore the root-eating pest species have already died off?

The Wikipedia article on nematodes mentions that there are "recipes" for breeding nematodes, wherein different types of foliage combinations will yield different types of nematodes that, I suppose, attack different insects. Anybody know more about this?

i doubt you will get viable nematodes in good numbers with that method. it sounds like your making a weak compost tea.

this is more along the lines of what you want

http://www.aquaculturestore.com/info/nematodes.html

Another tip: Electrify them to increase their numbers!

Seriously... If you apply a weak DC electric field to their growth medium/food source, there may be an increase their activity and their reproduction rate as well.

There's a bunch of research out there that shows how bacteria responds to weak electric fields. I'm not sure if nematodes fit into the exact same category, but it would be an interesting experiment for someone to try out.

Hey Patrick Winters.  I just saw your post on a Nematode Recipe. I was looking for it too. Here's two links that might be the recipe that Wikipedia was referring to :

http://nurturing-nature.co.uk/slugs-snail/home-made-slug-killing-soup-a-case-of-well-intentioned-pseudoscience/

and :

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/gardeningequipment/8675592/The-war-on-slugs-starts-at-home.html