Biological control of prickly pear with Cactoblastis
Control biológico de la chumbera con Cactoblastis
- Date
- 1925-1930 · confidence high
- Place
- Chinchilla, Queensland, Australia
- Credited to
- Alan Dodd and the Commonwealth Prickly Pear Board (Queensland)
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
The Argentine moth Cactoblastis cactorum was released in Queensland in 1925 and in a few years destroyed the prickly pear that had invaded more than 20 million hectares. It is one of the most spectacular successes of biological weed control.
Cactoblastis later became a pest of native cacti in Florida and the Caribbean, which called the safety of biological control into question.
What it led to
- classical biological control of invasive plants
- recovery of millions of hectares of farmland
- a case also studied for its risks, as in the Caribbean and Florida