00:02Among the lush green rows of Brad Rogers' Manjimup avocado orchard, spring has sprung.
00:08This is next year's crop starting to bud up, flowers and leaf.
00:13But the avocado trees are vulnerable.
00:15This wood's quite soft, you can tell by knocking it, as compared to hardwood.
00:21It makes them attractive to burrowing pests like the polyphagous shothole borer.
00:25The beetle has already infested an avocado orchard in Perth and farmers don't want it spreading to the south-west,
00:31where about 40% of the country's avocados are grown.
00:35It's very critical for our livelihood and for us to grow the fruit that Australians and West Australians love.
00:41We would like to contain it if we can.
00:43Helping fight the battle, Murdoch University researchers studying Australia's only lab colony of shothole borers.
00:49So they build a gallery so they can grow fungi and there are some insects inside.
00:57Working out what repels and attracts the beetle.
01:00Then we can use that in the trap, for example, to monitor their population in the field, to detect them
01:06or to trap and kill them.
01:08Shothole borers have already spread to five continents.
01:11They thrive in warm, humid climates, so authorities are desperate to stop the spread from WA to the east coast.
01:18So they may amplify quickly, spread quickly and that will be a big threat to whole Australians.
01:26Fears not enough eyes are on the beetle, with the focus shifting to bird flu.
01:30When we lose that focus, that's potentially a really good opportunity for this beetle to really spread and start causing
01:42damage in other parts of Australia.
01:44But the state government insists there's been no change to its shothole borer response.
01:49We'll be right back to you.
01:52You
Comments