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7 October 1998 |
Ref 98/239 |
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It simply isn't cricket. An alien invader of Australia has the potential to wreak havoc with our national sport, not to mention golf, football, horse racing, home gardens, city parks, as well as rice, sugarcane and tomato farms.
The Changa mole cricket, a large, olive-coloured brute with a voracious appetite for turf, slipped into Australia from Latin America unnoticed sometime before 1984. The insect has already begun a stealthy march from its beachhead round Newcastle, NSW.
In Florida, USA, related mole crickets are already inflicting over $A120 million in damage to lawns and sporting turf, and scientists from CSIRO Entomology warn that the Australian invader, Scapteriscus didactylus, is climatically adapted to spread from Sydney to Cairns.
However CSIRO's Dr Robin Bedding believes he may have a solution to keep the invader in check without having to saturate the landscape with costly and toxic insecticides.
Dr Bedding is a world authority on nematodes, or tiny primitive roundworms, many of which attack and kill pest insects. His research has achieved remarkable success in controlling borer pests in Australia's pine plantations, China's apple crop, berryfruit crops and glasshouse pests worldwide.
Sprayed on the ground beside the affected crop, the nematodes act like microscopic guided missiles. They wriggle in pursuit of their prey, vanish up its backside and then proceed to chew the guts out of it. The borer soon dies, leaving its carcass for the baby nematodes to feed off. The young nematodes then wait in ambush for or seek out new pests.
Dr Bedding's system for rearing, storing and spraying on the nematodes - which are totally harmless to humans and other animals - has led to an effective biological control for pests that are hard to get at, because they burrow or bore.
"We recently imported a particular nematode, Steinernema scapterisci, for our research into storage. This nematode specifically attacks mole crickets and we are optimistic that it will attack the Changa mole cricket, so we're seeking quarantine approval to test it for this purpose," he explains.
The new control method may not come a moment too soon for a nation that depends on turf for many of its national sports and recreations, not to mention $2 billion in export income from sugar and rice.
To begin with the mole cricket was only evident around the city of Newcastle. In 1994 it took a large bite out of the local golf course - more than 200 pests were found in a single putting green. Subsequently it began to chew through several other golf courses and local city parks.
The Changa mole cricket comes from a region of central South America spanning Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. CSIRO entomologist Dr Dave Rentz warns that because of its climatic adaptability, it could develop into a serious pest for Australia if it spreads. The crickets are prolific: females lay up to 10 batches of 450 eggs in a season.
For some years, the cricket was confined to the Newcastle region, but recently fresh invasions were reported from the Hunter Valley towns of Maitland and Cessnock.
"That's disturbing, because Cessnock gets frost, and in theory the cricket shouldn't do well there," says Dr Bedding.
The real worry is that the cricket is presently in a region cooler and less favourable than it prefers naturally. What will happen if it spreads into its ideal climate range of northern NSW and Queensland is anyone's guess.
"The Changa mole cricket is quite easy to distinguish from our native crickets. It is large, about 3 cm long, olive-brown in colour, and has two digging claws on its front leg, instead of the four of all native species.
"It lives underground during the day, feeding on roots, but comes out at night to feed on the leaves of grasses and other crops. It can do serious damage to seedlings."
The mole crickets are not very mobile - but they or their eggs can easily hitch a ride in pot-plants, turf slabs, soil, ship's ballast and nursery stock, Dr Bedding warns. They have wings, fly by night and are attracted by light, so they can alight on ships or trucks.
More information:
Dr Robin Bedding, CSIRO Entomology 02 6246 4292
Malcolm Robertson, CSIRO Entomology 02 6246 4040
Visit our web site: www.ento.csiro.au
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