biological control


noun
  1. the control of pests by interference with their ecological status, as by introducing a natural enemy or a pathogen into the environment.

Origin of biological control

1
First recorded in 1920–25

Words Nearby biological control

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use biological control in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for biological control

biological control

noun
  1. the control of destructive organisms by the use of other organisms, such as the natural predators of the pests

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for biological control

biological control

  1. Control of pests by disrupting their ecological status, as through the use of organisms that are natural predators, parasites, or pathogens. Examples of biocontrol include the use of ladybugs to prey on aphids and scale insects and the treatment of turf with spores of the bacterium Bacillus popilliae, which cause milky disease in Japanese beetle larvae.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.