As socal says, they spread very little on their own. My infestation spread quite rapidly because I was making new beds from old but didn't yet know I had a problem. Ack! Yes, they affect ornamentals. But just as with veggies, not all. Once you know you have nemas, it wise to be extremely careful about what you do & how you do it. Some suggestions: - deal with infested sites as the last task of the day - and if possible with their own set of tools - clean your shoes/boots well after you leave an infested area. - never, ever, move plants from an infested area to another site, even though their roots look fine because the nemas are in the soil around the roots. - never set a pot on infested soil, then move it to clean soil -- the nemas can hitch-hike - perhaps have a separate hose for the infested area rather than drag the soil to clean areas. And each season, mix in lots of compost, 3 inches or so. The compost aids the populations of beneficial soil organisms which help limit the nasty nemas.

Oh, now that things are getting back to me; after clean-shaving all the roots and treating with bleach, I also scrubbed the root-stub with a tooth brush under running tap water... As I mentioned many times before, PREVENTION is the best cure! Do examine ALL rooted figs you get from who-ever. If RKN ever get into ones garden soil, it is extremely difficult to eradicate them, no matter how many RKN- trapping-marigolds are planted, RKN-eating-good- nematodes (expensive) are applied, or chemicals used. There is one chemical that nukes the soil (it practically kills everything!). I forgot the exact name. But it SO toxic, that it is now illegal and not available any more.

Jo, Like Larry, I've never seen any quantifiable independent research that shows neem oil applied to soil has any effect on nematodes, although I have seen such claims made by those who benefit from selling neem. I would never apply neem to soil because it likely would kill some of the good microbes in the soil which then would leave your soil less healthy. Remember that healthy soil is full of all kinds of biologically active creatures, which I tend to lump together in a group and call "microbes". What are these microbes and how many are there? The microorganisms include all sorts of microscopic plants and animals, including nematodes (there are beneficial ones, you know), fungi, actinomycetes, bacteria, yeast, germs, protozoa and algae. Healthy soil that has a good compost/humus content is believed to have as many as 50 billion microbes in 1 tablespoon of soil, according to organic gardening expert and author J. Howard Garrett, aka 'The Dirt Doctor'. Since all the microbes in soil play an important role in soil health, you don't want to put anything in the soil that would hurt those microbes. I'll use spider mites as an example of the unintended consequences of using a 'cide' to kill the bad pests and inadvertently killing beneficial insects too. While spider mites are a pest in certain circumstances, there are beneficial predatory mites that help keep the spider mites under control. When you spray a miticide on plants infested with spider mites, you kill not only some of the spider mites (most pesticides do not kill 100% of the pests) but also the predatory mites that help keep the number of spider mites down. When the mite population rebounds (and it always does), the pesky herbivore spider mites bounce back first because they feed on plants and plants are readily available so they have an endless food source. Then, in a much more slow manner, the predatory mite population, which are carnivores, rebounds. The problem is that beneficial insects rebound very slowly because the 'mamas' don't reproduce until there's already a good food source for their babies to eat. So, while the mama predatory mites are waiting for the food source to increase to the level they need, the spider mite population is growing very rapidly and getting out of control. Once the predatory mite population begins to surge and feed upon the spider mites, the spider mites have a huge head start and your plants are severely damaged. I think if you used neem in soil, you'd likely kill off a good portion of the microbes in the soil, leaving your soil less healthy, less fertile and more vulnerable to soil-borne pests, including root knot nematodes and various soil-borne diseases. So, even if the idea of trying neem is attractive, it could hurt more than it might help. I used the spider mite example to illustrate how using a 'cide' for pest control can backfire because it is the story of my life. My dad was a terrific gardener, but he fought spider mites my entire childhood, and he lost that battle in late July or so of every year, and so did his best gardening buddy, Mr. Camp. I watched the two of them try everything to kill those spider mites, but the spider mites always outlived and outlasted their efforts. So, I grew up thinking that no matter what you did, you would lose your tomato plants to spider mites in July. Eventually I grew up and had a home of my own and my own garden. During our second year in our house, we decided we wouldn't 'poison' our tomato plants with the miticide commonly sold to home gardeners back then. A miticide didn't help the first year in our new home when we did use it, so it seemed pointless to spend money buying it and then spend time spraying it on the plants the second year. What happened? Our spider mites didn't get out of control and our tomato plants didn't die. Once I convinced my dad to give up miticides, he never lost his tomato plants to spider mites again. Still, it probably was another dozen years or so before I finally understood why not using a miticide saved our plants from the mites, and that's because I didn't know back then that there was such a thing as predatory mites. So, I hope that tale illustrates the dangers of even attempting to use a soil treatment to kill the root knot nematodes. Even if it would kill the nematodes (which I highly doubt), it would kill all the other microbial life in the soil. As an organic gardener that is absolutely the last thing you need. Even worse, what I think most likely is the neem oil would kill the good microbes, but not the root knot nematodes. When I am trying to figure out what to use in my garden or landscape, I fall back on that old adage used by physicians.... "first, do no harm". You might have a chance of killing some of the root knot nematodes by applying beneficial nematodes to the soil. The most important factor affecting the efficacy of beneficial nematodes would be to apply them at precisely the exact temperature they need, and also to use the right beneficial nematodes. Dawn

RKN would be rare if you haven't had problems with them before and if you do have them then they are already throughout your soil so problems should be seen in other plants as well. Sacrificing one plant won't prevent further contamination but it is the only way you can confirm them. So if you wish you can pull up one plant and check for the root galls. But there are many possible reasons for wilts with tomatoes and stem knots on tomato stems are often nothing more than normal primordia. But to be sure we'd need some additional info or a photo if at all possible. Dave