PhD Candidate
My second ever scientific paper has just been published! You can read it here.
It’s published open access in the journal PeerJ, which means it is freely accessible by anyone.
This paper deals with the experimental part of my masters research. I put out loads of insect traps at a couple of sites in the Waitakere Ranges over the summer, and then used the resulting catch of native wasps to try to figure out more efficient ways of trapping them.
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“What? Native wasps?” I hear you say. Yes, thousands of them! And they don’t sting!
I was interviewed on Radio New Zealand’s ‘Our Changing World Programme’ by Alison Ballance. We chatted about our misunderstood parasitoid wasps, my masters research, and the value of taxonomy. You can check out the interview here. Happy listening!
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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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‘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:…