Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research
New Zealand's foremost environmental research organisation.
Bio–controls for NZ farming
Farming pests that costs millions of dollars in control and lost production every year are about to find life a lot tougher.
Several new bio–controls have been released at sites throughout New Zealand by scientist Hugh Gourlay to try and control invasive weds including Scotch broom and Californian thistle. He says the releases are not a “quick fix”, instead their introduction will need to coincide with ongoing and wider on–farm management practices.
Furthermore, a bio–control introduced a decade ago to help control a pest plant in the Central North Island appears to have finally taken hold.
More: Discovery, Issue 19 »IYOB
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Science in Focus - Pest Control Technologies
The Pest Control Technologies Team focuses on providing improved pest management through new and improved management strategies, tools and techniques – ranging from biological control to traps and toxins. The key pest targets are possums, rodents, stoats, ferrets and invertebrates (wasps, ants).
The team is comprised of 22 staff with expertise in wildlife pest ecology, impact assessment, trap design and testing, animal welfare, toxicology, bait development, immunology, virology, reproductive biology, modelling, and decision support systems. This expertise is complemented by research links with a range of international centres with similar interests (e.g. National Wildlife Research Center, USA; Central Science Laboratories, UK) and overseas universities (e.g. University of Vienna, University of Newcastle).
Research is undertaken for central government (e.g. Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, Department of Conservation, Biosecurity New Zealand), local government (e.g. Northland Regional Council, Horizons Regional Council), national agencies (e.g. Animal Health Board), international agencies (e.g. Tasmanian Department of Primary Industry, The Nature Conservancy), and private companies.
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