Caenorhabditis elegans is a species with boom-and-bust life style in fluctuating wild environment. Dauer larvae, which can survive in harsh conditions without food for months, disperse to a new habitat with ample food to resume reproductive growth, either through cruising or hitchhiking. Dauer larvae of C. elegans and its close relatives have been discovered in the wild associated with other animals such as isopods or snails. Nictation, a dauer-specific standing and waving behavior, is a hitchhiking behavior which facilitates dauers to attach to these carriers. Here, we show natural variation in nictation behavior among wild isolates of C. elegans exhibit a high degree of heritability. By quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping, we discovered and confirmed a QTL, which we named the nict-1 locus, involved in nictation variation utilizing molecularly distinguished polymorphisms in two wild isolates. We investigated genetic feature of the nict-1 locus and analyzed its potential effect on behavioral variation. To assess fitness effect of the nict-1 QTL, we performed a transmission competition assay using isopods. Our results demonstrate a significant effect of the nict-1 QTL on the transmission to a new habitat through hitchhiking, as well as an unexpected trade-off effect on reproduction. In summary, we discovered a QTL that exerts a trade-off effect between dispersal and reproduction, two crucial traits for survivor and evolution of the species.