A choice experiment assessment of the impacts of an invasive biological control agent

The Asian ladybird beetle is an introduced biological control agent that has become highly invasive in many regions, including Europe. While biological control is usually considered as an environmentally-friendly alternative to chemical pesticides in controlling pests in crops, there is growing concern that these environmental benefits could be outweighed by the negative consequences of the invasion. These include (i) biodiversity losses as populations of native ladybirds and other aphidophagous insects suffer from intraguild predation and competition for resources ; (ii) human nuisance in houses, including risks of allergy and (iii) potential losses to vine-growers. The aim of this paper is to shed some quantitative light on the valuation of environmental and private characteristics affected by the Asian ladybird's introduction. We conducted a choice experiment among a representative sample of the French population. Our results show that the consequences of the Asian ladybird's introduction do affect significantly the population's utility. Among these, the impact on biodiversity through the threat on native ladybirds appears to be a significant concern, with a non-negligible willingness to pay to avoid disappearance.