PhD Candidate
Brown marmorated stink bug is a serious horticultural pest native to East Asia. It damages crops, infests ornamental plants, and seeks out shelter over the winter causing massive problems for homes and businesses. Fortunately we don’t have it in New Zealand yet, but in order to keep it out we need to know what it looks like. In this post I show you how to tell it apart from other New Zealand stink bugs.
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My PhD project focuses on biocontrol: using beneficial species to manage the impacts of undesirable species.
I’m looking at Trissolcus japonicus, or the ‘samurai wasp.’ This tiny Asian wasp has been proposed for release against the brown marmorated stink bug in New Zealand (if and when the stink bug is found to have established here). My work focuses on testing the likelihood this wasp would attack New Zealand’s native and naturalised stink bug species if it were released. In order to do this, I’m rearing NZ stink bug species so I can use their eggs to test the behaviour of the wasp.
Most researchers conducting these types of tests would have to compile a short-list of stink bug species to test, based on things like their biological classification, their rarity, their economic importance, etc. But New Zealand has so few species of stink bug, I can include all potential non-target species in my tests. Here is a visual guide to New Zealand’s stink bugs.
When stink bugs hatch, they aggregate together around the egg shells until after their first moult. Image CC-BY-NC 4.0 by fairyeagle / iNaturalistNZ
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We’re going round in circles on the issue of pest control.
We haven’t even had a proper conversation about how we define pests, why we should eradicate them, and what the ethics are of such a mammoth undertaking. The unveiling of the Predator Free 2050 strategy drew lots of praise, but first we need to develop some consensus on what it is we’re trying to achieve and why. In order to do this, we need have an accurate understanding of what the issues are and how we can approach them.
Egmont National Park by DoC, via Flickr (CC-BY-2.0)
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Scientific name: Halyomorpha halys (Stål 1855)
Common name: Brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB)
Native range: China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan
Current invaded range: Canada, USA, Chile, at least 11 EU countries
BMSB – By Hectonichus via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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‘Wasps’ are truly a diverse group of insects – with over 100,000 species known out of an estimated total of 350,000, they make up a considerable chunk of biodiversity.
It’s true that some wasps wreak havoc against native biodiversity and cause serious allergic reactions when they turn their sights on people. However, only a handful of species give wasps their bad reputation in New Zealand:…