Chapter 4 – BIOLOGICAL CONTROL - Invasive

BIOLOGICAL CONTROL Weed CONTROL Methods Handbook, The Nature Conservancy, Tu et al. John M. Randall and Mandy Tu BIOLOGICAL CONTROL (biocontrol for short) is the use of animals, fungi, or other microbes to feed upon, parasitize or otherwise interfere with a targeted pest species. Successful biocontrol programs usually significantly reduce the abundance of the pest, but in some cases, they simply prevent the damage caused by the pest ( by preventing it from feeding on valued crops) without reducing pest abundance (Lockwood 2000). Biocontrol is often viewed as a progressive and environmentally friendly way to CONTROL pest organisms because it leaves behind no chemical residues that might have harmful impacts on humans or other organisms, and when successful, it can provide essentially permanent, widespread CONTROL with a very favorable cost-benefit ratio.

native honeybees, other biocontrol agents, and possibly some native butterflies. A key part of the screening process is host-testing, wherein potential control agents are given the opportunity to feed on a variety of crop species and native plants, including those most closely related to the targeted pest. No-choice tests isolate the potential

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  Host, Plants, Butterflies

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