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Advanced radio tracking technology is helping biosecurity teams track down yellow-legged hornets and their nests in Auckland.
Biosecurity New Zealand says small radio transmitters imported from the Netherlands are proving effective in the effort to eradicate the invasive pest.
Biosecurity New Zealand Commissioner North Mike Inglis says the technology has already helped locate queen hornets, hundreds of workers and three nests.
“The trackers are becoming a very important tool in our eradication operation, and we continue to deploy them,” Inglis says.
On-the-ground teams lure worker hornets to feeding stations and observe their movements to estimate how close a nest may be.
“Tiny transmitters weighing less than 160mgs are then attached to the workers, and we’ve been able to track their flight path back to the nests using signals from the transmitter to a radio receiver.”
Thermal drones are also being used to help pinpoint nest locations and assess hornet numbers.
“That ensures we have the best plans in place to safely destroy and remove those nests and hornet populations,” Inglis says.
“This tracker technology is expected to be especially useful as summer progresses and hornets are likely to build larger secondary nests up in trees where they’re less visible to ground searchers.”
Public reporting continues to play a key role, with more than 9700 notifications received so far.
“We have had a fantastic response from across the country and importantly, from the (North Shore) community where these hornets have been found. Our teams on the ground have engaged with schools and community groups and there are families making traps and putting them in their backyards.
“Through our groundwork, the recent use of the tracking devices and public involvement, we have so far found 43 queen hornets and 30 of these were found with nests.
“Our focus is on locating and destroying queens to stop them producing a new generation of hornets. At the end of autumn, workers die (approximately 600 have been found to date, mostly in nests, and destroyed), but any remaining mated queens can hide over winter and emerge the following spring to build nests and raise their young.
All detections to date have been confined to the Glenfield and Birkdale areas.”
The eradication programme includes 965 traps within an 11km radius of detection sites, daily ground surveillance across the North Shore with more than 8300 individual property visits, a summer-long public awareness campaign, and guidance from international experts.
Two specialists from the United Kingdom are currently in New Zealand observing the response operation and sharing their experience, including the use of tracking technology.
Biosecurity New Zealand is encouraging anyone who finds a suspected hornet, a possible nest, or has taken a clear photo to report it online or by calling the exotic pest and disease hotline on 0800 809 966.
