When establishing as a hemiepiphyte F. rubiginosa usually remains rather inconspicuous until its roots reach mineral soil. Dependant on the nutrient and moisture status of the soil it may at this stage go on to develop into a large tree that envelops it phorophyte in strangler roots and overshades it. On drier sites with poor soils though, F. rubiginosa may remain a small to moderately sized semi-epiphyte in the long term, inflicting little or no damage on its phorophyte (McPherson 2004).

Many mature, healthy specimens of F. rubiginosa dating from the 19th Century can be found in Queensland's historical parks and gardens (McPherson, 1999, 2004), indicating at least reasonable longevity for individuals of the species.

A female fig wasp enters a syconium (fig) and galls the short styled female flowers while pollinating the long styled female flowers. Wingless male fig wasps emerge first from the galls, inseminate the females and then bore exit tunnels out of the fig for the winged females. Females emerge, collect pollen from the male flowers and fly off in search of syconia whose female flowers are receptive. In order to support a population of its pollinator, individuals of a Ficus spp. must flower asynchronously. A population must exceed a critical minimum size to ensure that at any time of the year at least some plants have overlap of emmission and reception of fig wasps. Without this temporal overlap the short-lived pollinator wasps will go locally extinct (McPherson 1999, 2004).

In New Zealand, F. rubiginosa lacks natural enemies, and is noted as being avoided by possums when browsing (Gardner and Early, 1996). Gilman and Watson (1993) report that the fruit does not attract wildlife on the USA mainland, but in Hawaii though, Starr et al. (2003) report that a variety of birds consume the fruit and disperse the seeds. These characteristics along with this species ability to quickly reach large sizes raise concerns that F. rubiginosa could invade forest habitats and affect native plant communities in Australasia-Pacific regions (Gardner and Early, 1996; PIER, 2005). Further, urban areas within and outside the species natural range can be invaded from ornamental plantings, resulting in damage or destruction of urban trees and infrastructure (McPherson 1999, 2004).

Physical: The Environment Bay of Plenty (UNDATED) suggests pulling seedlings and cutting down larger trees .

Chemical: The Environment Bay of Plenty (UNDATED) states that after felling F. rubiginosa trees, holes should be drilled into the trunk. These holes should be downward sloping and not more than 50mm apart around the trunk. After creating the holes the stumps should be poisoned by pouring stump paint herbicide mixes into the hole. Unless the stump is poisoned the tree will quickly resprout.

Cultural: In regions where the species is grown ornamentally, it is most important to exclude the pollinator wasp, Pleistodontes imperialis, if it is yet to establish. If areas have their own indigenous Ficus spp., a program of replacing ornamental F. rubiginosa with endemic Ficus might be considered.