Centre for Biological Control

The Centre for Biological Control (CBC) focuses the majority of their research on understanding the ecological dynamics of invasive pests, aquatic and terrestrial weeds in particular. A large proportion of this work is the development of biological control methods for these invasive plants, which can then be implemented by Governmental Scientists and Management. Biological control is a particularly appealing solution because it is not toxic, pathogenic or dangerous to humans. It also has the advantage of being self- perpetuating once established and usually does not harm non-target organisms found in the environment. There are a number of Research Programmes within the CBC which focus on various groups of target plant species, and different aspects of biological control including developing biopesticides for Agricultural pests.