X-Nico

unusual facts about biological control



Ecological goods and services

Biodiversity supports ecological goods and services such as biological control and genetic resources.

Gonipterus scutellatus

The egg parasite Anaphes nitens, a wasp which is native to Australia, has been introduced to other countries as a biological control agent to control the gum tree weevil.

Mikania natalensis

The butterfly Actinote thalia was considered for the biological control of Chromolaena odorata in southern Africa, but permission to release this control agent was not sought because the larvae were found to consume the leaves of Mikania natalensis.

Pereskia aculeata

It can be controlled by Triclopyr or biological control with the leaf-feeding flea-beetle, Phenrica guérini, which has caused significant damage to Pereskia plants at Port Alfred, Eastern Cape, South Africa, but although the beetle was also released widely in KwaZulu-Natal, it has not become established there.


see also

Birch leafminer

Presently there is no commercially available biological control agent to control Amber marked birch leafminers, however Canadian trees in the Edmonton area have been successfully controlled with releases of a parasitic wasp, Lathrolestes luteolator.

Cecidophyes rouhollahi

It is a plant parasite found on Galium aparine and can be a potential biological control agent for Galium spurium.

Echium plantagineum in Australia

The Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has carried out research on numerous classical biological control solutions, and of the 100-odd insects found feeding on Paterson's Curse in the Mediterranean, judged six safe to release in Australia without endangering crops or native plants.

Eriophyidae

Aceria malherbae, the bindweed gall mite, an agent of biological control against field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis)

Aceria chondrillae, the chondrilla gall mite, an agent of biological control against skeleton weed (Chondrilla juncea)

Eupatorium macrocephalum

Moths of the genus Adaina and in particular Adaina microdactyla (Hübner), have been investigated as possible biological control agents.

Gill Tract

In 1998, experimental land for the Center for Biological Control was drastically limited in order to accommodate epigenetic research of non-GMO corn to patent genes for the genetic modification of organisms.

Hans Rudolf Herren

There he built the Biological Control Program and designed and implemented the largest biological pest-management known to date fighting the Cassava Mealybug (Phenacoccus manihoti) and saving an estimated 20 million lives by averting a major food crisis.

Hypericum androsaemum

In 2008 Landcare Research will begin investigating the feasibility of a biological control.

Mark Souder

In early 2006, Souder added, to a bill about the office of the drug czar, a provision calling for the fungus Fusarium oxysporum to be used as a biological control agent against drug crops in foreign countries.

Neuranethes spodopterodes

Its very voracity combined with its monophagous feeding habits have however suggested that it might prove to be a valuable biological control of invasive Agapanthus in countries such as New Zealand.

Onopordum

In most of these countries, these thistles are considered noxious weeds, especially in Australia where a biological control program has been set up (using the Rosette Crown Weevil, Trichosirocalus briesei).

Opuntia stricta

In Australia it has been the subject of one of the first really effective biological control exercises using the moth Cactoblastis cactorum.

Perceptual control theory

The unaffiliated scientist William T. Powers recognized that to be purposeful implies control, and that the concepts and methods of engineered control systems could be applied to biological control systems.

Puccinia jaceae var. solstitialis

solstitialis is the first pathogen approved by the United States Department of Agriculture as a classical biological control agent.

Salvinia minima

Biological control efforts for S. minima have been centered around the tiny salvinia weevil, Cyrtobagous salviniae.

Schinia cognata

The larvae feed on Asteraceae species and are used as a biological control agent for Chondrilla juncea.