Thomas W.M. Nuhfer | September 29, 2025
Invasive species (non-native species which spread quickly and lead to socio-ecological harm) are a significant driver of ecological change. Once an invasive species becomes abundant, removing the species or preventing further spread can be very difficult. But there’s one tried and true method humans have used for millenia to reduce populations (sometimes even exterminating species entirely) – eating them. Is eating invasive species really a viable management strategy? What are the risks and benefits? Most importantly – do they taste good?
“Eat your Invasives” campaigns have been picking up steam. In the southeast US & Caribbean, NOAA is encouraging seafood markets to sell invasive lionfish [1]. This campaign has had some success – you might encounter lionfish tacos on the menu in coastal Florida . If that’s not to your taste, you could fry up some Copi (a recent culinary rebrand of several invasive carp species; Fig. 1) [2]. You can drink your invasives too, if you’re feeling adventurous enough to try green crab whiskey. Not a seafood fan? Vegetarian-friendly invasive species like garlic mustard, Itadori knotweed, and autumn olives can be foraged for pesto, chutney, and wine.
Fig. 1 – Copi (invasive carp) fish cakes. (Source: Chef Peter Gebauer via ChooseCopi – recipe here)
Tasty as this sounds, culling invasive species is a controversial tactic. The campaign to squash spotted lanternfly has captured the hearts and spirits of Pennsylvanians (Fig. 2), but in other contexts there is strong social resistance to the idea of killing species for conservation reasons. Many people have cultural and personal attachments to invasive species. For example, public pushback has prevented culls of invasive feral horses in New Zealand [3]. In addition to ethical concerns, culling can be hard to implement at scale [4]. Creating food markets helps offset both the expense and some ethical concerns of culling. One study found that 96% of survey respondents would support culls for food, and pay market prices, for invasive blue crab [5].
Fig. 2 -Poster encouraging culling of spotted lanternfly. Source: Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.)
However, there can be other consequences of encouraging people to eat invasive species:
- Risks from harvesting
- DIY harvesting can be harmful if best foraging practices aren’t followed. For example, many invasive plants grow in polluted roadside environments which aren’t safe for foraging, or are treated with herbicides. Additionally, if the target species is misidentified, or the habitat is delicate, harvesting could harm other species.
- Incentivizing spread
- If invasive species become valuable enough commodities, people may be incentivized to move them into new areas, or to breed/grow the species, causing more ecological harm [4].
- Triggering increased invasion
- For some species, harvesting can actually increase population abundance. Sometimes this happens because partial removal triggers growth (as in many plants) or because density-dependent effects (like resource competition or pathogens) keep populations in check [6]. In the long run, harvesting can act as a selective pressure, leaving only the strongest individuals, or species may adapt to reproduce faster and younger [7].
Depending on the species, population suppression via consumption may be tricky. Some research suggests that control efforts for garlic mustard (Fig. 3) may only be successful if >85% of adult plants were removed annually – a high bar [6]. But it’s not all bad. Targeted harvest has been shown to help suppress populations of species including lionfish, crayfish, and green crab [8]. And it has benefits beyond eradication:
- Building community engagement
- Eating invasive species raises ecological awareness and investment. Harvesting can serve as a community monitoring practice, with lots of people regularly observing their local ecosystems.
- Easing stressed food systems
- As climate change, habitat loss, and overfishing put pressure on food systems, invasive species may be a cheap, abundant nutrition source. Eating invasive species particularly provides an alternative to harvesting overfished species. Harvesting of invasive species can be a path to food sovereignty, at the individual or community level.
- Making the best of a bad situation
- As NOAA says, “if we can’t beat them, let’s eat them!” [1]. Given that many invasive species are well-established, harvesting them provides an opportunity to direct our relationships with them into something more reciprocal and find a silver lining in a changing world.
Fig. 3 – Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) – an invasive species in Massachusetts. (Source: John Fielding via Wikimedia Commons)
Overall, whether this strategy is ecologically helpful depends on the species and location, but with careful ecological guidance, it can work. So do they taste good? I sure think so! My freezer is stuffed full of foraged invasive treats. But you should decide for yourself! Try out this garlic mustard pesto:
- 2 cups young garlic mustard* leaves (harvested in early spring at first emergence), thoroughly washed & roughly chopped. If leaves are older, they must be parboiled before use & may be bitter.
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ½ cup pine nuts, walnuts, slivered almonds, or sunflower seeds
- 2.5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon sea salt, plus more to taste
- Black pepper to taste
- ½ cup grated parmesan (optional)
- additional mint, basil, garlic cloves, or parsley (optional)
Mix garlic mustard and olive oil together in a food processor. Add lemon juice, salt, pepper, cheese, and nuts and pulse. Freeze in ice cube trays for easy use throughout the season. Level up your invasive species pesto by adding onion grass* (Allium vineale) leaves, another invasive species in the Northeast!
*Forage safely! Go with an experienced forager, use a reliable foraging guide, and forage only from clean and safe areas.
[1] US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. n.d. “Filleting the Lion.” Accessed September 23, 2025. https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/news/lionfish/eatlionfish.html.
[2] Garvey, James E, Kevin S Irons, Gina Behnfeldt, and Karolina A Kwasek. 2024. “Introducing Copi as a Positive Path Toward Combatting Invasive Carps in North America.” Fisheries 49 (6): 253–62. https://doi.org/10.1002/fsh.11088.
[3] Mack, Richard N., Daniel Simberloff, W. Mark Lonsdale, Harry Evans, Michael Clout, and Fakhri A. Bazzaz. 2000. “Biotic Invasions: Causes, Epidemiology, Global Consequences, and Control.” Ecological Applications 10 (3): 689–710. https://doi.org/10.1890/1051-0761(2000)010%255B0689:BICEGC%255D2.0.CO;2.
[4] Pasko, Susan, and Jason Goldberg. 2014. “Review of Harvest Incentives to Control Invasive Species.” Management of Biological Invasions 5 (3): 263–77. https://doi.org/10.3391/mbi.2014.5.3.10.
[5] Marchessaux, Guillaume, Bettina Sibella, Marie Garrido, Antonino Abbruzzo, and Gianluca Sarà. 2024. “Can We Control Marine Invasive Alien Species by Eating Them? The Case of <em>Callinectes Sapidus</Em>.” Ecology and Society 29 (2). https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-15056-290219.
[6] Zipkin, Elise F., Clifford E. Kraft, Evan G. Cooch, and Patrick J. Sullivan. 2009. “When Can Efforts to Control Nuisance and Invasive Species Backfire?” Ecological Applications 19 (6): 1585–95. https://doi.org/10.1890/08-1467.1.
[7] Detmer, Thomas M., Montana E. Airey, Kurt J. Jirka, et al. 2025. “Community-Wide Transient Dynamics of Lake Fish Populations in Response to Two Decades of Suppressing an Introduced Predator.” Journal of Applied Ecology 62 (6): 1406–20. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.70064.
[8] Green, Stephanie J, and Edwin D Grosholz. 2021. “Functional Eradication as a Framework for Invasive Species Control.” Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 19 (2): 98–107. https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.2277.