What is biological control of weeds?
Biological control of weeds is the use of parasites, predators, and pathogens to reduce the population of a weed. While it can refer to the use of sheep or cows to graze weeds to reduce seed production and plant health, we will refer to that as cultural control. For the purposes of this project we will use biological control to refer to invertebrate parasites and predators (usually insects, mites, and nematodes) and plant pathogens. In addition, while biocontrol can refer to the use of native insects and pathogens, we are primarily concerned with the use of nonnative insects and pathogens to control nonnative invasive plants. To date, the use of biological control on weeds in Forest Service Region 6 has been exclusively the use of nonnative parasites, predators, and pathogens. While we are not ignoring the possibility of using natives, this discussion primarily applies to the use of nonnative agents including nematodes, mites, insects, and rust fungi.
