It infests pastures and farmland, causing often disastrous loss of yield, as reflected in common names such as famine weed.

[17] A study published in 2021 further showed that the plant could promote malaria by supplying much appreciated food and shelter to mosquitoes in Eastern Africa.

[24] Side effects after ingestion of any part of plants that encumber the trichomes and pollen are eczema skin inflammation, hay fever, asthma, burning and blisters, breathlessness and choking, allergic rhinitis, black spots, diarrhoea, severe erythematous eruptions [25] Among other allelopathic effects of the species, the presence of Parthenium pollen grains inhibits fruit set in tomato, brinjal, beans, and a number of other crop plants.

Light infestations of Parthenium hysterophorus in cultivated fields may be hoed or weeded by hand if labour is available at acceptable cost.

[citation needed] In various countries, such as Australia and South Africa, several other biocontrol agents have been released or are under evaluation.

partheniicola plus the summer rust Puccinia xanthii[26] In Australia, apart from the foregoing, yet other biocontrol agents have been employed or evaluated on Parthenium hysterophorus, to a total of 11 species since 1980.