In this essay, we focus on metaphors in invasion biology. The emergence of this discipline went hand in hand with heated debates on the so-called exotic species issue. The dualistic stalemate in which these debates have resulted—with only two extreme positions, nativism on the one hand and cosmopolitanism on the other—is at least partly connected to the dominance of loaded political metaphors. To break up this dichotomy to create space for fruitful debate, we will explore various metaphorical frames of ecological thinking and their implications for invasion biology. We will deconstruct the nativism–cosmopolitanism dichotomy by identifying various management practices, in each of which the native species issue is shaped differently.