Extraction
Soil is placed in the elutriator,
a soil washing machine, To separate nematodes from the soil.
Cysts are collected on 60-mesh sieves.
Debris collected on 20-mesh sieves is discarded.
The
cysts are resuspended in water to further separate cysts from heavier soil particles.
Cysts are transferred into coded grinding tubes.
Cysts, which contain the nematode eggs,
are transferred to a grinding apparatus. The cyst walls must be broken to count
the eggs.
Breaking the cyst walls releases the eggs. Cyst wall fragments are collected and removed on a 200-mesh sieve, which allows the eggs to pass through and be caught on the 500-mesh sieve.
The
contents of the 500-mesh sieve are concentrated at the edge of the sieve and rinsed
into a 150 ml beaker.
Acid
fucshin stain is added to make the eggs easier to see under a microscope.
The samples are heated to boiling.
Enumeration
Updated 3/1/11