Shrinking planet Earth: travel and conquest on the road to globalisation -- A little Europe in the Cape: the Cape floral kingdom and its plant invaders (mostly silky hakea, cluster pine and long-leaved wattle) -- Stealing South Africa's precious water: the threat of woody tree invaders (wattle, pine, eucalyptus, mesquite and lantana) -- Troublemakers in the big blue: mussels, oysters and crabs -- Armies from the new world: Argentine (sugar) ant -- Winged incursions: common starlings, common mynahs, house sparrows, house crows, feral pigeons, the mallard duck and the spread of indigenous species -- The devil weed and the dinosaur doppelgänger: triffid weed and its impact on the Nile crocodile -- Flowers of the waysides and wastelands: road and railway verges and power-line servitudes -- Glades of grass: perennial and annual grass invaders -- The invisible sounder: Eurasian wild pigs -- The sweet-toothed predator in the winelands: the European or yellow jacket wasp -- The 'Capensis' calamity: Cape and African honeybees and the painted reed frog -- Our polluted waterways: predatory fish (trout, bass and sharptooth catfish) and invasive plants (hydrilla and water hyacinth) -- A tale of cats and mice: Marion, Prince Edward and Gough Islands -- Blueprint of a well-nourished world: genetically modified crops and global food security -- Staging a defence: strategies to contain invasion -- A biological diaspora: South Africa's weedy exports.