Risk factors

Once introduced into a field in any of the European agricultural areas, M. fallax and M. chitwoodi, populations will establish themselves almost anywhere where the potato crop is able to grow. Intensive cultural practices like absence of rotation or host crops in the rotation (carrot, black salsify), poor control of groundkeepers and use of farm-saved seeds are favourable conditions for their persistent establishment.

Special attention must also be paid to soil movement (or field exchange) and to the management of crop residues and waste from processing factories because of the potential dispersal of these root-knot nematodes.