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.

Galerucella spp. reduced above ground purple loosestrife biomass from 2,000g/m2 to less than 20g/m2 in 4 years (The Ontario Biological Control Program, 1998). Additional studies found that at high Galerucella densities (200 larvae/plant), plants were entirely stripped of all green tissue and seed production was prevented (Butterfield et al., 1996).

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  Purple, Loosestrife, Purple loosestrife

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