Current invasive plants research

Integrated weed management research by CSIRO Entomology is helping control some of the introduced plant species that have become weeds in Australia.

To help protect Australia’s ecosystems, CSIRO is undertaking invasive species research at pre-border, border and post-border level.

Research at the United States Department of Agriculture’s Brisbane based Australian Biological Control Laboratory targets native Australian plants that are weeds in the USA.

Species of the Australian native, Casuarina, have become invasive weeds in parts of the USA and the search is on in Australia for potential biocontrol agents.

CSIRO scientists are currently investigating two potential agents for release in Australia to help control Cape broom, an introduced weed in southern Australia.

Scientists at CSIRO’s European laboratory are investigating fungal pathogens that may have potential for use as biological control agents against Ulex europaeus in Australia.

Scientists at CSIRO are researching several new biological control agents for the control of alligator weed in cooler climates and terrestrial habitats of Australia.

The jewel bug, Agonosoma trilineatum is being utilised in Australia as a biological control agent against the highly toxic weed bellyache bush, Jatropha gossypiifolia.

CSIRO Entomology has started a project to discover and test biological control agents from cabomba's home range of Argentina and adjacent countries in an effort to find a long-term sustainable solution to control this aquatic weed.

Introduced deliberately into the USA, the Australian native broadleaf paperbark tree is now an invasive pest in the Everglades of Florida and is the subject of biological control research in Australia.