{"id":141075,"date":"2019-09-25T11:16:12","date_gmt":"2019-09-25T10:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cabi.org\/?page_id=141075"},"modified":"2025-08-20T10:28:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T09:28:09","slug":"biological-control-of-invasive-plants","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.cabi.org\/what-we-do\/cabi-centres\/biological-control-of-invasive-plants\/","title":{"rendered":"Biological control of invasive plants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n

Biological control of invasive plants<\/h1>\n

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Invasive plants can pose serious threats to native species, ecosystems, human health and many sectors of the economy such as agriculture, forestry and tourism.<\/p>\n

When plant species grow outside of their natural distribution range they are called non-native or exotic. One reason why these non-native plants can become invasive is the lack of natural enemies that limit their vigour, density and spread.<\/p>\n

Classical biological control, or biocontrol<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0is the use of living organisms such as insects, mites or fungal pathogens to control pest populations. It levels the playing-field by reintroducing some of the specialist natural enemies that help control the invasive species in its native range. The aim is not to eradicate the invasive plant, but to bring its density below an appropriate ecological or economic threshold.<\/p>\n

Biocontrol is an environmentally friendly, cost-effective and sustainable way of managing invasive species and has been used effectively for more than 100 years.<\/p>\n\t

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What we offer<\/h2>\n

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CABI has over 60 years’ experience of working on the biological control of invasive weeds and is one of the few organisations in the world that can simultaneously research and develop insect, mite and fungal control agents.<\/p>\n

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Any organism intended for the control of a non-native invasive plant undergoes an extensive series of tests to determine its environmental safety before considering its release. More than 50 biological control agents have been released based on the work carried out at CABI in Switzerland alone. Many of these are currently contributing to the successful control of important North American weeds such as leafy spurge, toadflaxes, knapweeds, houndstongue and purple loosestrife.<\/p>\n

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Our team of highly experienced staff works with customers to develop scientifically sound biological control solutions based on thorough research. We advance the science of biological weed control by carrying out in-depth studies, often in collaboration with universities or other research organizations.<\/p>\n

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Our work is generally carried out in a number of phases which typically include the following tasks:<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\"Biological\n\t

See an example of our work:<\/p>\n

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