Hadda Beetle risk to NZ food crops

[Lesley Cox]

We are having a biosecurity scare at present in Auckland, where a new beetle has been found in a park near to the port and it is thought to have entered the country in a container. I've already forgotten its name ( ) but it looks very like a ladybird, slightly larger and with up to 20 spots, perhaps a slightly more orangey colour. Apparently it ravages potatoes, tomatoes and presumably other Solonaceae. MAF is going for a total eradication programme, with aerial spraying over the whole and surrounding areas, assuring local residents that the spray they are using and will use again, is "quite harmless" to humans." Of course everyone believes THAT.

[partisangardener]

With these spots its never a ladybird. Good luck with your pesticides

[gote]

Sounds like the Colorado beetle a very dangerous pest on potatoes.
We have had a number of scares in sweden but fortunately our winters are too cold so it will not survive more than a couple of years and only in the south parts.
However, your climate is warmer so you have all reason to be concerned
Cheers
Göte

[johnw]

Gote  - The Colorado potato beetle here has stripes, no spots and yellowish; the head is orange with spots.

johnw

[Lesley Cox]

I still can't sort out the name which I didn't hear properly on the TV item. It was a very short word, beginning, I thought, with A. The sample shown seemed to have perhaps a dozen spots.

Later
After a couple of Google attempts which gave me, among other things news about a new VW beetle, I came up with the Hadda beetle (no scientific name given) which is ladybird-like, orange or yellow and 7-10mm in length. It is especially dangerous for potato crops. Parts of Auckland are being sprayed with a common (unspecified) insecticide, dyed blue. I'll have another Google to see where it comes from and how hardy it may be.

[Maggi Young]

Seems that Australia is getting the blame for the arrival of these Hadda beetles, Lesley!
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/foreign-beetle-found-in-auckland-3345369  .... with picture of buff, fuzzy looking spotted bug!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10623198

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10623342

[Lesley Cox]

You did better than I did Maggi as I didn't find the picture. Seems it's widespread around most countries of the Asia/Pacific region. Even if not fully hardy in the south, Auckland's climate should suit it just fine, being warmer than here (overall) and almost perpetually wet or at least muggy. I can't find a scientific (was going to say botanical) name for it. Anthony D will know.

[Maggi Young]

Got the name from a n NZ MAF biosecurity page:
Hadda beetle. Epilachna vigintioctopunctata  (Henosepilachna vigintioctopunctata )  


 This link to a photo of the grub of the Hadda beetle   (yuck)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dalalsure/3454402829/in/pool-naturestreasures

 all stages....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/33556610@N05/3455211486

 Have split this topic off from the lily Beetle thread 

[Rodger Whitlock]

To me the most significant thing is Lesley's statement "it is thought to have entered the country in a container".  That's pretty much how the emerald ash borer entered the US: infested, uncured wood used in Chinese pallets, bearing crap goods to be sold at Walmart, no doubt.

Given that NZ is notorious among international tourists for its very strict biosecurity measures (removing mud from incoming shoes, e.g.), why aren't they fumigating all containers?

We have a similar problem here in Canada. Eastern Canada is infested with the gypsy moth. We regularly get outbreaks of it here which have, so far, been successfully combated by aerial spraying of BTK. The outbreaks are almost cerrtainly due to people who move here from back east and put all their worldly possessions in the moving van, including the lawn furniture, canoe, and firewood (I kid you not!). These are just the kinds of places that gypsy moths like as egg-laying sites.

The stinger is that only military folks (and perhaps a few bureaucrats) being moved at government expense bother to ship that kind of clutter. Ordinary mortals don't bother because lawn furniture is cheap and widely available everywhere, the canoing around here isn't that great, and firewood is readily available at modest prices. Plus, of course, the moving company charges by weight, so mere mortals don't move anything they can easily and cheaply replace.

Why moving vans are not routinely fumigated when leaving the gypsy moth infested area, I do not know. Surely it would be cheaper than repeated bouts of aerial spraying for several years on end, and all the accompanying costs.

In the US, the fearsomely obnoxious plant kudzu was introduced by the US Department of Agriculture and hailed as the solution to soil erosion in the South. Within recent years a plant of kudzu was found in Oregon; I think they had to use a tactical nuclear device to eradicate it. [Joke alert]

And so it goes: many of the worst pests and weeds were introduced with governmental involvement. Meanwhile we poor gardeners get the short end of the stick.

[Lesley Cox]

Got the name from a n NZ MAF biosecurity page:
Hadda beetle. Epilachna vigintioctopunctata  (Henosepilachna vigintioctopunctata )  

No wonder the name isn't being bandied around in a cavalier way! I may write this out and ask selected people if they know what it is.

Rodger, in theory, all containers ARE inspected, but the fact is, MAF/Customs staff are far too few and far between (with the Govt determined to cut costs at every opportunity) and a selection of containers is inspected, perhaps 1 in 10 if as many as that. As with people in the airport arrivals hall, letters from overseas and every other item entering the country, "risk" items are assessed and the rest let go. People entering from Asia are much more likely to be stopped at the borders for inspection, likewise mail from Asia unless the person/item shows real likelihood of bad stuff.  Besides, opening a container to find 100 tonnes of leaf tobacco is one thing, finding a female hadda beetle with unlaid eggs, maybe way back in the container is quite another. Fumigation only takes place if there's something pretty obvious like spiders on tractor wheels.

Which all makes a nonsense of the bio regs concerning a few frit seeds of a species not known to be in the country already.

Some months ago (after our change of govt at the 2008 general election,) it was announced that many govt department including MAF would have drastic cost cutting applied. The country was assured however, that frontline biosecurity staff would not be affected. Yeah right!

[Lesley Cox]

So yes, Rodger is quite right. Even if the local govt didn't actually import this and many other pests, their actions/lack of actions have made it possible for others to do so.

[gote]

Gote  - The Colorado potato beetle here has stripes, no spots and yellowish; the head is orange with spots.

johnw

Ours too I only remembered the general shape. 
Göte