There’s been a lot in the media recently about the ‘brown marmorated stink bug’, a pest that could have significant impact on horticultural and agricultural exports, and potentially, our native plants and humans due to its overwintering behaviour in houses and buildings. Maintaining New Zealand free of this pest has also impacted car imports with a number of ships being turned away from Auckland after infestations of the stink bugs were found on board cargo vessels.
The media has called upon biosecurity specialists to comment on the potential devastation, including our own experts, Environmental and Animal Science Senior Lecturers, Dr Diane Fraser and Dr Glenn Aguilar.
Check out these two recent news stories that reference Diane and Glenn’s expertise which discuss one of the biggest current biosecurity threats to our horticulture, why we’re having this spate of stink bug scares and what prevention methods are being explored –
- The Science Media Centre – Brown Marmorated Stink Bug – Expert Q&A (6 March 2018)
- Stink bug’s big threat: How it will devastate New Zealand horticulture and taonga plants (6 March 2018)
This article, Kicking up a stink – Tracking the threat of the Stink bug to New Zealand, posted last month on the Unitec website, also references Diane and Glenn’s research, which included supervision of a third year degree student. The findings of the study showed that the majority of New Zealand is suitable for this bug and that climate change using estimates of greenhouse gas emissions resulted in a range shift in a southerly direction down New Zealand.