BMSB season by the numbers

Since the start of the high-risk season for Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB) in September 2020, activities to find and manage the risk of this unwanted pest have included:

• 93 visits by detector dog teams to high-risk Auckland air freight facilities as part of ongoing surveillance. Biosecurity New Zealand officers have also gone to 104 sites in Christchurch,
• 1700 container openings supervised by officers,
• 60-plus vehicle ship surveys,
• 300 consignments directed to remain onboard vessels until importers provided evidence of treatment/other management,
• 2600-plus verification checks of uncontainerised consignments of new vehicles and machinery,
• 4 detector dogs trained to sniff out BMSB,
• 4 fines issued to transitional facilities for not following directions from officers relating to BMSB.

Every month, KVH produces a BMSB risk update which details what the kiwifruit industry is doing to keep BMSB out of our orchards and how we are preparing in case it does get here. The updates also include information from Biosecurity New Zealand about new bug finds. You can read the latest update here.