How to Use biocontrol in a Sentence

biocontrol

noun
  • Witt says that biocontrol will be the best way of managing the pest.
    — Stephanie Bailey, CNN, 9 Dec. 2019
  • Today scientists refer to the episode as the first instance of modern biocontrol.
    — Martin J. Kernan, Smithsonian Magazine, 6 Jan. 2022
  • If that was true, a biocontrol program — bringing the predator to the pest — could help trees in the United States.
    — Washington Post, 1 Aug. 2014
  • These findings also call into question the use of parasitoid wasps as biocontrol for managing pests.
    — Christie Wilcox, Discover Magazine, 27 Nov. 2012
  • Over the past several decades, farmers have been using certain types of Pseudomonas for the practice of biocontrol.
    — Bruce Y. Lee, Forbes, 11 Feb. 2023
  • Rose rosette virus, transmitted by a mite, was used as a biocontrol for troublesome wild hedges of Rosa multiflora in the Midwest.
    — oregonlive, 27 Mar. 2022
  • The transition to studying biocontrol methods signals a shift away from the more physical or chemical aspect of control to one that will allow the agency to let nature do the work.
    — Lindsey Botts, The Arizona Republic, 25 Apr. 2022
  • Releasing insects that eat weeds, a technique called biocontrol, has worked against other plants, but so far researchers have not found anything that can be used against Spartina in China.
    — Byerik Stokstad, science.org, 8 Mar. 2023
  • But biocontrol and pesticides can be expensive and virtually impossible to deliver at the scale of millions upon millions of trees.
    — Marguerite Holloway, New York Times, 7 Oct. 2020
  • Other treatments from copper compounds to genetic biocontrol are in the mix as a collaborative dedicated to mussel control plans for the future.
    — Morgan Greene, chicagotribune.com, 30 July 2021
  • Schiller and her team work on researching and developing multiple biocontrol agents that are effective against mosquitoes but won't disrupt the environment.
    — Elizabeth Gamillo, Smithsonian Magazine, 5 May 2022
  • The introduction of the Novius ladybug to California remains the standard against which all biocontrol efforts are measured.
    — Martin J. Kernan, Smithsonian Magazine, 6 Jan. 2022
  • Such disasters have inspired backlash against biocontrol, sullying its public image and spooking policymakers.
    — Nala Rogers, Popular Mechanics, 9 Aug. 2023
  • In a single year more than 24 million browntail-moth webs were clipped off trees and burned, while federal and local governments introduced dozens of different biocontrol agents, including predator insects from Europe.
    — Kendra Pierre-Louis, The Atlantic, 7 July 2021
  • The hypervirulent myxoma virus, a pathogen deliberately introduced into Australian rabbits in the 1950s as a form of biocontrol, for instance, appears to have become less lethal over time.
    — Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 28 June 2021
  • And this summer, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation continued releasing wasps whose larvae feed on the emerald ash borer — an approach called biocontrol.
    — Marguerite Holloway, New York Times, 7 Oct. 2020
  • Stringent physical containment strategies and biocontrol methods maintained by specialized laboratories and enforced through international regulatory agreements could make disasters unlikely.
    — Liyam Chitayat, Foreign Affairs, 28 Aug. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'biocontrol.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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