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- ⚠️ Invasive species cost the U.S. over $120 billion each year in damages and control efforts.
- 🌿 Biocontrol, like using predatory insects and fungi, cuts down pests and keeps natural areas healthy.
- 🧪 Testing to see what an agent attacks makes sure biocontrol agents do not hurt good or local species.
- 🍄 Fungal biocontrol agents, like Trichoderma and Beauveria, help in two ways: they control pests and make soil healthier.
- 🔬 New ideas for the future include AI to help find biocontrol agents and CRISPR-edited microbes for exact pest control.
Nature’s Way to Deal With an Old Problem
Biocontrol, or biological pest control, uses a simple but powerful idea: let nature fix nature. This long-standing practice avoids chemicals and harsh methods. Instead, it uses natural enemies — such as predatory insects, fungi, or beneficial microbes — to stop invasive species from spreading. Even growers who cultivate beneficial fungi in Mushroom Grow Bags or Monotubs can see how these organisms naturally suppress pests or pathogens. As our world faces more ecological challenges, biocontrol offers a sustainable, gentle way to manage invasive species by working with natural systems, not against them.
What Invasive Species Do
Invasive species are living things—plants, animals, fungi, or tiny germs—that are brought into places where they do not naturally belong. People usually move them, sometimes on purpose, sometimes by accident. These living things often do well in new areas because they have no natural enemies, diseases, or rivals that kept them under control where they came from.
Without these natural controls, invasive species can grow fast. They take over resources from local species, change living areas, cut down on different kinds of life, and cause big problems for farms and wild places. Insects can ruin farming. Invasive plants can block rivers. And predators can wipe out local food chains.
Here are some well-known examples:
- Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica): This fast-growing plant breaks through concrete and takes over from local plants. Its strong roots often damage buildings and roads, and it is hard to get rid of.
- Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis): This beetle from Asia has killed hundreds of millions of ash trees in North America since we found it in 2002.
- Cane toads (Rhinella marina): People brought these amphibians to Australia to fight sugar cane beetles. But they became an invasive problem, poisoning animals that tried to eat them. Now, they are one of Australia's worst pests.
These invaders cause more than just problems for nature. The money cost is huge, adding up to over $120 billion each year in the United States alone (Pimentel et al., 2005). This number covers lost farm money, damaged forests, money spent on fixes and control, and less help from natural systems.
And then, as changes in weather patterns change living areas and world trade brings in more species across countries, stopping invasive living things is becoming a very important ecological and money concern.
What Biocontrol Is
Biological pest control, or biocontrol, is about using natural enemies, parasites, or diseases to handle invasive species and farm pests. Chemical pesticides often kill many kinds of things and can hurt helpful living things. But biocontrol tries to stop only the bad pests, helping natural systems stay balanced for a long time.
Biocontrol methods fit into three main groups:
1. Classic Biological Control
When an invasive species gets away from its natural enemies, scientists might find those enemies where the species came from. Then, they bring them into the new area. Rules tightly control this process, which people often use for long-lasting control that takes care of itself. For example, people brought the Cactoblastis cactorum moth to Australia to control invasive prickly pear. This worked well.
2. Boosted Biological Control
This means growing many helpful living things and then letting lots of them go into an area that has too many pests for a short time. For instance, farmers might release predatory mites to stop spider mite problems in greenhouses.
3. Protecting Natural Pest Control
This method does not add new living things. Instead, it works on making conditions good so that helpful bugs, tiny germs, or fungi already there can do well. Making hedgerows better, using fewer pesticides, or planting cover crops can help natural pest control agents that are already around.
Common Biocontrol Agents Are:
- Insects and Mites: These include predators like lady beetles, lacewings, or parasitic wasps. They attack pest eggs, young, or full-grown insects.
- Nematodes: These are tiny roundworms that live as parasites on insect young in the soil.
- Bacteria and Viruses: These are diseases that attack certain insects, like Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt).
- Fungi: Some fungi in the soil infect and kill insects. They go through the insect's outer skin and spread inside. This eventually kills the insect.
Each method is made for a specific job—there is no single answer for everything. But when done with care, biocontrol can give lasting, nature-friendly ways to stop invasive species.
Making Sure Biocontrol Is Safe
Biocontrol uses natural ways, but it is not just a "let it go and hope" plan. Every biocontrol project goes through a strict check. This helps avoid problems we did not plan for.
Important Steps for Safe Biocontrol Now:
- Testing What an Agent Attacks: Scientists look into whether the control agent will attack only the pest it is meant for, and not local or helpful species. This often means many years of research on different life stages and on related living things we do not want to harm.
- Modeling What Might Go Wrong: Smart computer models show how introduced species might act in the new place over time. This check looks at what could happen if the biocontrol agent does too well—or not well enough.
- Closed Labs and Greenhouses: We study biocontrol living things that might be used in safe labs or greenhouses. They are only thought about for use outside after they pass all safety tests.
💬 As Heimpel & Mills (2017) say, "The modern biocontrol process includes risk assessment with ecological modeling to prevent non-target effects." This lowers the chance of making past mistakes, such as bringing the cane toad to Australia.
Biocontrol works well because of careful science and watchful use. Government and science groups watch over things. This makes sure that dangers are as small as possible, and benefits are as big as possible for both natural systems and money matters.
The Good Things About Fungal Biocontrol
Of all the biocontrol choices, fungi are often the quiet helpers. These tiny living things—especially a group called entomopathogenic fungi—act like deadly diseases for insects and other pests.
Important Fungal Biocontrol Kinds:
- Beauveria bassiana: This fungus infects more than 200 kinds of insects. People use it a lot in farming.
- Metarhizium anisopliae: This one works well against many pests, such as termites, thrips, aphids, and whiteflies.
- Trichoderma spp. : These fungi stop plant diseases in the soil and make plant roots stronger. This gives extra good things beyond just stopping pests.
How Fungal Biocontrol Does Its Job:
These fungi work by sticking to an insect’s outer skin and getting inside its body with help from special chemicals. Once inside, they grow fast. They release poisons or just eat the host from the inside out. In the end, the insect becomes like a mummy and dies. Often, after death, it releases spores to infect other insects.
Good Points of Using Fungi:
- Controls Specific Pests: Many kinds of fungi only attack certain hosts. This means less risk to helpful or local living things.
- Stays Around: Fungi can live in the soil or on plants. This gives steady control for a long time.
- Works with Organic Farming: Some fungal biocontrol products are approved for use in organic ways of farming.
- Low Chance of Resistance: Fungi infect pests in a natural way, not with chemicals. So, it is harder for pests to develop resistance.
This double job, stopping pests and making soil better, puts fungi right at the spot where we can both control invasive species and do weather-friendly, restoring farming.
Why Biocontrol Is Better Than Chemicals
More pesticide resistance, fewer pollinators, and harm to nature have made scientists and farmers think again about using lots of chemicals.
Good Points of Biocontrol Compared to Man-Made Pesticides:
- Protects Nature: Biocontrol stops chemicals from spoiling soil and water.
- Harder for Pests to Fight Back: Insects more easily develop resistance to chemicals than to parasites, predators, or diseases.
- Safe for Pollinators: Most biocontrol agents do not hurt important insects like bees and butterflies, unlike pesticides that kill many kinds of bugs.
- Saves Money Over Time: Some biocontrol agents make lasting groups, so you do not need to buy or use them again and again.
- Works Well With Nature: Biological pest control fits well with integrated pest management (IPM) systems and farming methods that help rebuild nature.
Instead of choosing one or the other, biocontrol often works with careful chemical use. This is a mixed approach where man-made methods are only used when nothing else works.
Examples: Biocontrol That Does The Job
When biocontrol works well, it clearly shows that natural methods are not just possible. They are often better than only using chemicals.
Good Examples:
- Saltcedar (Tamarisk) Control: People brought leaf beetles of the Diorhabda group to handle invasive saltcedar in river areas across the U.S. Southwest. Careful plans for letting them go led to a lot less plant growth without much harm to other things.
- Prickly Pear Cactus in Australia: The Cactoblastis cactorum moth almost completely got rid of prickly pear problems over millions of acres in ten years.
- Trichoderma in Farming in Hot Places: In cacao and banana farms, Trichoderma fungi stop very bad root diseases. They also make plants stronger.
- Metschnikowia bicuspidata: People have looked into this yeast-like fungus to control invasive water bugs like the water flea Daphnia lumholtzi.
These programs show what fungal and insect-based biological pest control can do for both farms and natural systems.
Fungi and Farming That Helps Nature
Moving to farming that helps nature—where we grow food in ways that fix soil, bring back different kinds of life, and improve what natural systems do for us—makes fungi very important.
Main Uses:
- Stopping Disease: Trichoderma fungi in compost teas help stop Fusarium, Rhizoctonia, and Pythium kinds of diseases in greenhouse or field crops.
- Cleaning Soil with Fungi: We use fungi like Pleurotus and Ganoderma together to clean dirty soils. This deals with poisons and too many pests at the same time.
- Making Soil Health Better: Mycorrhizal and entomopathogenic fungi help roots take in nutrients better. They also actively stop pests around the root area.
Adding fungal biocontrol to nature-helping farm systems is not a new or strange idea anymore. It is a key part of many ways to grow food that lasts.
When Biocontrol Goes Wrong
Every method has its dangers. Biocontrol plans that are not studied well or are rushed can harm nature.
Known Failures:
- Cane Toads in Australia: People brought these toads to control cane beetles. But instead, the toads became very strong hunters and were poisonous to local wild animals.
- St. John’s Wort Beetle in California: People brought this beetle to control one invasive plant. But the beetle also attacked plants that were related to local plants, hurting local greenery.
What We Learned:
- Always do full research.
- Work with local people.
- Set up plans to watch things for many years.
- Bring in nature scientists from many areas, not just bug or farm experts.
Biocontrol guided by science, with a focus on being careful and understanding the situation, is the answer to avoid such failures.
Biocontrol in a Changing World
Changes in weather patterns are changing how pests act. Warmer temperatures move species into new living areas, and this stresses natural systems that might fight them off in normal times.
Biocontrol's Role in Changing Weather:
- Making Forest Management Fit: Fungal sprays that stay strong in heat stop bark beetle outbreaks in mild forests.
- Managing Weeds Without Harming Nature: Fungal diseases can target invasive trees like Ailanthus altissima, instead of cutting them down by hand or machine.
- Help for Eco-Farming: When put into farming systems that work with nature, fungal and insect biocontrol makes the whole system stronger.
In the next decades, biological pest control will be a main part of managing land in ways that can handle changes in weather.
What Is Coming for Fungal Biocontrol?
New tech in biology is changing biological pest control. What might come next includes:
- CRISPR for Disease Paths: Changing pest genes to make them more likely to get fungal diseases.
- Using Drones: Flying or ground drones can put spores in exact spots that are hard to get to.
- AI to Find Agents: Computer models that learn help find good biocontrol agents from world lists of living things.
- Better Fungal Products: Liquid forms that last longer on shelves or gels that slowly release and work when soil conditions are right.
These new steps could make fungal biocontrol common for everyone—taking it from farms to forests to homes all over the world.
Can You Use Fungal Biocontrol at Home?
Yes, but be careful. While you can buy fungal biopesticides for home use, not all kinds are legal or safe to release in your yard.
How to Start in a Good Way:
- Use soil or compost teas with added Trichoderma to cut down on soil diseases.
- Use OMRI-approved sprays like Beauveria bassiana for garden pests.
- Stay within the law: Follow all local and country rules about using biopesticides.
- Never let lab-grown kinds go straight into wild natural areas.
Like all science projects, doing careful research and having good intentions helps a lot.
Using Nature Without Hurting It
Biocontrol teaches us a strong truth: nature has what it needs to fix itself—if we pay attention. It could be a parasite wasp, a fungus that hunts, or a tiny roundworm. Each one helps keep things balanced. Our world faces dangers from invasive species, ruined soil, and changes in weather patterns. Biological pest control gives us a plan not just to get by—but for real natural healing.
Citations
Heimpel, G. E., & Mills, N. J. (2017). Biological control: Ecology and applications. Cambridge University Press.
Pimentel, D., Zuniga, R., & Morrison, D. (2005). Update on the environmental and economic costs associated with alien-invasive species in the United States. Ecological Economics, 52(3), 273–288. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2004.10.002
