MARINE PROGRAMS
Strategic Priorities

Biological Control of Weeds Projects

What is Biological Control?

Safety in Biological Control

Biological Control of Spartina

Biological Control of Knotweeds

References

Biocontrol Staff

"Invasive Spartina in Willapa Bay" website

"Olympic Region Harmful Algal Blooms" website

What is biological control?

Biological control is an ecologically based, cost-effective, and sustainable means of managing the harmful environmental impacts of pervasive weeds (or other pests).  In the classical form of weed biological control, specialist natural enemies or ‘agents’ from the weed’s native range are introduced with the intent of establishing a permanent population that will provide long term control.  Biological control is economical because the introduced organisms do all the work.  Moreover, it is specific to the target plant, has no toxic side effects, and is permanent (plants controlled biologically do not tend to reinvade).  However, biological control requires substantial initial research to demonstrate that the introduced organisms will not harm non-target plant species and it may take many years before the full benefits of biocontrol are known.  Provided that the proper steps are taken to ensure host specific agents, biological control of weeds can be implemented with a high level of safety (McEvoy 1996; Pemberton 2000).