Root-Knot Nematode Awarded Squatter's Rights After 17 Years in Same Tomato Plant

A Fresno County superior court judge made agricultural history Friday by granting adverse possession rights to a colony of Meloidogyne incognita that has continuously inhabited a single heirloom tomato plant in Mabel Cruickshank's backyard garden since 2009. The ruling, which legal scholars are calling 'unprecedented and botanically confusing,' came after Cruickshank attempted to remove the nematodes using a combination of soil solarization, marigold interplanting, and what she described as 'yelling at the dirt.' 'The colony has maintained uninterrupted occupancy of the root galls for seventeen years,' wrote Judge Patricia Endoparasite in her decision. 'They have made improvements to the property, including extensive giant cell formation and vascular restructuring. The law is clear.' Cruickshank expressed disbelief. 'They destroyed my tomato yields,' she said. 'The galls are the size of golf balls. And now they have rights?' The nematodes' court-appointed representative, agricultural attorney Davis Vermiform, called the decision 'a victory for sedentary endoparasites everywhere.' 'My clients invested significant metabolic resources into establishing those feeding sites,' Vermiform said. 'They secreted effector proteins, they manipulated plant cell differentiation, they built a home. That counts.' Neighboring gardeners have expressed concern about the precedent. The Fresno Community Garden Association has already reported three additional nematode colonies filing preliminary occupancy claims. The tomato plant itself was not available for comment, though it was described by witnesses as 'visibly stunted and somewhat resigned.'