Pine aphid – a devastating pest that causes more than $20 million in lost wood production to the softwood industry each year – is coming under welcome pressure from a biological control that is taking hold in pine growing regions across NSW. Funded by FWPA, the project (PNC063-0607) commissioned the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) to research and introduce a potential biological control agent, the parasitoid wasp, Diaeretus essigellae.
Ongoing monitoring by Department of Primary Industries (DPI) scientists is determining how widely established the biological control – a tiny wasp from California released here in 2009 – has become in NSW commercial pine forests.
“To date, established populations of the biological control wasp have been found in the South West Slopes (Tumut/Tumbarumba), Central Tablelands (Bathurst/Orange) and the Northern Tablelands (Walcha),” said DPI Principal Research Scientist Angus Carnegie.
“It’s a very encouraging sign that we have found the biocontrol wasp has spread naturally into new areas since its release.
Image credit: Wikimedia
