Citation:

6 The biological control of weeds. 1968. Pages 86-119. Chapter 6. In: Charles E Palm (editor). Weed Control, Principles of plant and animal pest control. Volume 2. National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences, Washington DC, 471 pages.

Keywords: ecological basis and principles of biological weed control, influence of enemies, kinds of natural enemies, nature of the controlling action, host specificity and risks of introduction, need for host-specificity studies, host-plant recognition and acceptance, factors affecting probability of success, choice of enemy agents, aggressiveness of the weed, climate and the synchrony of living relations, competing plants and management practices, biological control procedures, foreign exploration, exploration area, related plant species, assessment of biological control agents, sources of error, assessing the potential value of an enemy, safety tests for introductions, general criteria, records in the literature, planned field programs of observation, feeding and breeding tests, tests using assorted crop plants, tests on selected specimens of plants, criteria for host-plant acceptance, decision to introduce, quarantine considerations, evaluation of results, successes, trends, and future possibilities for biological control of weeds, aquatic weeds, algae, submersed plants, emersed plants, snail Marisa cornuarietis, floating plants