Grower captures stink bug

Speaking of our ever-popular calendar, it came in handy for a Bay of Plenty grower in the days leading up to Christmas when a dead stink bug was found in their house as they were packing for the holidays.

The grower had family who had been in Hong Kong some months prior and when getting ready for this year’s Christmas travels, a dead and unusual looking bug was spotted. Thankfully, the grower knew exactly what to do and by using the calendar was able to identify a suspect Yellow Spotted Stink Bug (YSSB).

After making an online report to Biosecurity New Zealand immediately (as it was a Sunday evening) and then ringing the KVH office Monday morning, identification was confirmed as YSSB. The bug had been dead for some time, and there were no others found after a further detailed search. However, the grower was asked to follow up with Biosecurity New Zealand to ensure the find was recorded in the national database.

The YSSB is like the more well known, Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB) in that it is a hitchhiker pest that could have serious impacts on our fruit and vegetable industries, ruin gardens and infest homes.

It’s reports like these – and being on the lookout – that show how committed to biosecurity we are as industry and how great our growers are at doing the right thing so that we are all protected from potentially devastating impacts of any kind of incursion that isn’t caught early.

Image: The dead YSSB found by a grower, who recognised it from the KVH biosecurity calendar.