Family members travelling within the State during the Spring school holidays have been reminded to take precautions to prevent the spread of pests, weeds and disease.
Chief Plant Biosecurity Officer at the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, Sonya Broughton said simple biosecurity measures like brushing off shoes, clothing, camp equipment and cars and bagging food scraps before departure prevented the risk of pests or plant and animal diseases being transferred from one place to another.
“It only takes one unfortunate incident for an unsuspected biosecurity risk to ‘hitchhike’ to a new location, breed and become a risk to agricultural production and profitability,” Dr Broughton said.
She said the Department was engaged in several biosecurity responses and surveillance operations, including eradicating Queensland fruit fly from Perth’s western suburbs, as well as monitoring red imported fire ants and browsing ants in the metropolitan area.
“It is also working with grain-belt landholders to monitor a new pest to the State, Russian wheat aphid, which cannot be eradicated but can be controlled,” Dr Broughton said.
“There are now 24 confirmed detections of Russian wheat aphid from the Esperance region, while reports of absence and presence from throughout the grain-belt are still encouraged to help determine the spread of the pest to wheat, barley and oat crops.”
She said a summer campaign to monitor the hills and surrounding areas for the social pest European wasp would also soon be cranking up, aimed at minimising its impact on horticulture crops, the environment and WA’s outdoor lifestyle.
“Pests, diseases and weeds are a serious threat to our agricultural industry in lost production and control costs, which can significantly affect farmers’ livelihoods,” Dr Broughton said.
