Efforts to establish a biological control agent against incipient infestations of old world climbing fern in Southwest Florida

Abstract

When available, field-adapted insects should be selected for colonization and redistribution, because they appear to offer better prospects for establishment than laboratory-reared insects. Small founder populations of monophagous biocontrol agents that depend on a patchy, rare host plant are susceptible to extinction, especially when stochastic weather factors cause temporary disappearance of the host plant. Populations of N. conspurcatalis did not survive the winter of 2010/2011 in Manatee County, likely due to a combination of low-temperature mortality and frost events.