Essential oils are being increasingly utilised as a biorational element in integrated pest management regimes. Whereas there has been much research on the effects of these oils on mortality and behaviour of pestiferous molluscs, insects and nematodes, there has (to the present authors’ knowledge) been no research into their effects on the mortality and behaviour of beneficial nematodes. We address this lacuna by conducting lab...

Summary The main food source of free‐living nematodes in the soil environment is bacteria, which can affect nematode development, fecundity and survival. In order to occupy a reliable source of bacterial food, some nematodes have formed specific relationships with an array of invertebrate hosts (where bacteria proliferate once the hosts dies), thus forming a tritrophic system of nematode, bacteria and insect or other invertebr...