Off the top of my head, I can't think of another case where an invasive species was beaten back. In the US, thousands of people were devoted to beating back blister rust, only to end in utter failure.
I guess a species moving in the soil is easier to combat. The only equivalent I can think of in the US is earthworms from Europe, probably imported in the ballast of ships in the early seventeenth century which still have not reach parts of North America and advance only a few meters per year. They have radically changed North American forests, but like honey bees (another introduced/invasive species), most people see them as beneficial, so there has been no effort to stop their advance.
