As a migratory endoparasite, Ditylenchus destructor females lay eggs throughout the plant tissue while moving from cell to cell. Once they have hatched, the juvenile nematodes will either move throughout the surrounding plant tissue or out of the plant from which they hatched to a nearby, healthy host. Ditylenchus destructor is not very mobile through soil though, so dispersal primarily occurs during harvest or transportation of the host when healthy tubers are in the immediate vicinity. If the nematodes exit the initial host, they most commonly infect the tubers of a new host; however, it is sometimes possible for them to infect the above ground parts of the plant and migrate to the tubers through the plant cells.
