Females have at least two rows of oocytes and the spicule on the male nematodes is a short ventral process without outgrowths.
[1] Aphelenchoides ritezmabosi has a wide host range of almost 200 plant species, and is an important disease in chrysanthemum and other ornamentals.
[3] Other ornamental hosts of A. ritzemabosi are anemones, asters, carnations, Chinaster, cinerarias, coneflowers, crassulas, creeping bellflower, dahlias, delphiniums, elders, lupines, monkeyflower, phlox, pouchflower, rhododendrons, sages, Siberian wallflower, water peperomia, and zinnias.
The nematode also produces secretions that have the ability to cause several other symptoms in infested plants including shortening of inter-nodes, creating a bushy appearance, browning and failure of the shoot to grow, as well as distorted leaf formation.
[5] Aphelenchoides ritzemabosi is an endoparasitic nematode, meaning that it feeds on plant tissue from the inside of the cell.
[6] Adult nematodes infest the leaves of their host plant by swimming up the outside of the stem in a film of water.
[3] When the growing season of the host comes to an end the nematode goes into a quiescent state overwintering inside the leaf tissue.
Above ground ectoparasitic feeding can only happen in events of prolonged high humidity or other circumstances providing a long term film of water on the plant which protects the nematode from exposure.
[5] Studies have shown that in optimal conditions a single female A. ritzemabosi can produce up to thousands of offspring in the period of about a month.
[9] French & Barraclough (1961) obtained a maximum number of 3,500 progeny from a single A. ritzemabosi female after 38 days at mean greenhouse temperatures of 17° to 23 °C.
The total life cycle takes 10–13 days [11] In susceptible varieties of Chrysanthemum, the female remains in one place within the leaf as it feeds on adjacent cells and continuously lays eggs.
[12] Laboratory tests have shown that Botrytis cinerea and many Rhizoctonia species of fungi are more conducive to A. ritzeambosi growth and reproduction.
[18] Care must be taken so that the temperatures needed to eliminate the infesting nematodes does not irrevocably harm the plant material.
[3] The Bulb Mite, Rhizoglyphus echinopus, is a known predator of A. ritzemabosi and can serve in biological control practices.
In 1981, Crop losses from plant-parasitic nematodes in the US were estimated by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) at about $4.0 billion per year.
An infection by A. ritzemabosi can cause average yield losses of an estimated 53.4% in the strawberry variety Korallovaya 100.
In Poland, A. ritzemabosi infestation destroyed 45% of chrysanthemum plants on a holding, and for the most susceptible varieties the number was as high as 92%.
For a sense of how that relates to other plant pests, an 'A' rated pest is an organism of known economic importance subject to action enforced by the state (or County Agricultural Commissioner acting as a state agent) involving: eradication, quarantine regulation, containment, rejection, or other holding action such as Aphelenchoides besseyi (strawberry summer dwarf nematode).