Pest Photo

Michael McClure, University of Arizona, Bugwood.org

Burrowing nematode

Radopholus similis

Burrowing nematode (Radopholus similis) is a nematode pest.

Burrowing nematode or Banana-root nematode is an important parasite of fruit, vegetable, and other crops. It is an especially important pest of bananas and citrus, but it will also attack coconut, avocado, coffee, sugarcane, and assorted other types of grasses and ornamentals. It is a migratory endoparasite of roots. The nematode causes a lesion on the plant's root that forms a canker, and the plant suffers from malnutrition while the nematode completes its life cycle within the root. .

For more information about this plant pest, see the CABI data sheet.