Management of disease is maintained through seed sanitation, heat treatment, crop rotation, and fumigation of fields.

The female lays 250 eggs during a season and six generations may develop under optimum conditions when the temperature is in the range 15–20 °C.

Its other plant hosts include peas, beetroot, vegetable marrow, pumpkin, rhubarb, and ornamental bulbs.

Some weeds also act as hosts, including Stellaria media, Linaria vulgaris, Polygonum aviculare, Fallopia convolvulus, and Galium aparine.

Reproduction takes place in succulent, rapidly growing tissues or in storage organs and continues throughout.

[16] Stem and bulb nematodes can survive up to two years in freezing or extremely dry environments in the soil.

[16] Once D. dipsaci begins to feed on the plant, cells near the head of the nematode lose all or a portion of their contents.

The plant cells become enlarged due to the disappearance of chloroplasts and an increase of intracellular spaces in parenchyma tissue.

Major damage occurs in garlic, onion, carrot, fava bean, alfalfa, oats, and strawberry.

In Allium species (onions, garlic, and leeks), infected plants show characteristic symptoms including stunted growth, yellow spots, leaf curl, and foliage lesions.

[19] In fava beans (Vicia faba), symptoms of infection include reddish-brown stem lesions that can turn black.

[21] Seed material samples from infected plants can be dissected and viewed under a microscope to confirm the correct race.

[23][24] Proper sanitation in fields and of tools is essential in preventing and controlling the spread of D. dipsaci because they can survive and reproduce in infected plants and residues.

[25] All infected tissues should be removed from growing sites and destroyed to control populations, and all farm tools and equipment should be cleaned of potentially contaminated soil before moving them to a new location.

Races of D. dipsaci are highly host-specific, so employing a three-year crop rotation can deprive the nematodes of a suitable host and starve the population.

[26] Growers should avoid planting susceptible bulbs, seeds, or seedlings during seasons of peak nematode infection.

Many of these plants are economically valuable food crops and ornamentals and cannot be sold if they are infected or damaged by stem and bulb nematodes.

Other crops such as alfalfa, oats, and tulips that are not used primarily for their roots still suffer necrosis and stunting that slowly destroys the plant.