Codling moth populations and community attitudes to pest management in peri-urban Hawkes Bay

Abstract

The codling moth (Cydia pomonella) is an economic pest to apples in New Zealand. This species poses threat to the apple industry through the impact on phytosanitary standards for export, but it is also present in peri-urban backyards, destroying fruit. The Hawkes' Bay region of New Zealand is the epicenter of our fruit production, which the economy relies on for export. The presence of invasive pest insect species remain a constant threat to the production of fruit in the area, and the codling moth especially is responsible for costing the industry millions in control, if not production loss. Many invasive species often first establish in urban areas, enhancing the importance of carrying out studies on insect pests in a peri-urban setting. This project used insect capture methods such as pheromone trapping to provide an area-wide set of population density estimates for codling moth across Hawke's Bay's peri-urban landscape of Hastings. 200 pheromone traps were set up across Hastings and monitored fortnightly over the period of five months during summer. The traps showed that there is a present population of codling moth across Hastings, mainly in low densities. These results offer the recommendation that further eradication steps should be carried out to prevent the re-incursion of controlled orchards from the unmanaged peri-urban population. Current Plant and Food Research-led efforts on orchards involve applying sex pheromone-based mating disruption technology as well as sterile insects released weekly by unmanned aerial vehicle, and the insect populations have subsequently crashed. Moving these methods from the pilot stages within the orchards into the peri-urban region offers the best approach, however, this requires the integration of the community. As there is a larger human population in peri-urban areas compared to the orchard regions, this research aimed to gauge the willingness of the community to allow the use of these mating disruption and SIT technologies in their environments, along with engaging them in the process. The engagement of the community in the eradication program should increase its chances of success and their future participation. The methods that were utilized in this study should have implications for future studies regarding the eradication of invasive arthropods within New Zealand.