Foreign wasp reducing vegetable damage

Sigrid Brown

Posted Thu 10 Feb 2011 at 6:38pmThursday 10 Feb 2011 at 6:38pm

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Queensland Government researchers say vegetable growers in Bowen and the Burdekin region in the state’s north have been able to reduce pest damage by introducing a foreign wasp species.

Dr Siva Subramaniam says the silverleaf whitefly poses a significant threat to Queensland’s billion-dollar vegetable industry.

Dr Subramaniam says the whitefly sucks nutrients and injects toxic saliva into vegetables, decimating tomato, pumpkin, eggplant and cucumber crops.

He says the wasp, from Pakistan, has proved to be safe and may be introduced to more farms.

“It has been very rigorously tested by the CSIRO around four or five years ago,” he said.

“After that, it has been tested widely in the field.

“There’s not any negative impacts – mainly the wasp attacks only the silverleaf whitefly, not any other native species.”

Dr Subramaniam says the introduction of the wasp means farmers have been able to use less pesticides on crops over the four-year program.

He says the wasp may now be introduced to farms in Bundaberg and the Lockyer Valley.

“What the wasp is doing is they go and attach to the whitefly and feeding on them and utilising the whitefly to breed their own generation,” he said.

“The whitefly is not breeding in the fast and large numbers.”

Posted 10 Feb 2011