biocontrol

Biological control or biocontrol is the use of one organism to control the numbers of another.

This article has been republished from The Conversation under Creative Commons licence CC BY-ND 4.0 and is written by Dr Angela (Ang) McGaughran, Senior Lecturer in...

Introduced wasps cause all sort of problems for people and native species, but did you know we have native wasps in New Zealand? What is a...

Imagine being able to smell your dinner from the other side of a sports field. Insects do this with the pair of antennae on their heads....

Kiwi Forever is a week-long leadership in conservation scholarship based at Tirorangi Marae, Ōhakune. In March 2018, 16 rangatahi (young people) from seven colleges participated. A...

New Zealand might be an island nation, but that doesn’t stop us from having to deal with a variety of unwanted organisms that find their way...

A team of scientists from New Zealand and Australia has discovered the way in which a bacterium packages its toxins in a hollow protein shell and...

Oliver Trottier and Jessica Feickert (Leigh Marine Laboratory) have been working to understand the biology of the New Zealand pea crab, which is a parasite of...

Introduced Chinese weevils, Cleopus japonicus, are laying waste to large patches of buddleia in the Bay of Plenty, much to the relief of forest growers and...

Here, we explain the function of reproductive proteins GnRH and ZP. These proteins are targets for contraceptive vaccines, investigated in New Zealand to help reduce possum...

Here, we explain how contraceptive vaccines for possums are made and how they work. Possums are a major pest in New Zealand, so scientists investigated the...

Here, we describe transmissible and non-transmissible methods for delivering biocontrol agents to possums. Scientists in New Zealand investigated a range of agents to reduce possum numbers,...

Scientists in New Zealand investigated whether a roundworm parasite could be used to deliver a hormone toxin to possums. This article looks at the research by...

A list of terms used in our content on the biological control of possums. Zona pelluc ida Antibodies Proteins, also known as immunoglobulins, produced in the...

A little mite, like a tiny spider the size of a pin head, has been plaguing New Zealand’s bee industry. The mites, called varroa, are parasites...

A parasitic worm that naturally infects possums could be the key to controlling possum numbers in New Zealand. Join Supervader and participants from Wellington’s 2006 Kids’...

A tiny Irish wasp can now be used as a biological control agent against clover root weevil, following permission from the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA)....

Ryegrass is an important food for cattle, but it is also a favourite food of competing insects. Can biological control offer a solution? What's so special...

In January 2006, a tiny wasp was released onto a Waikato farm to kill an enemy that was devastating pastures. Ten years on, these tiny wasps...

The advantages and disadvantages of using a vaccine to reduce possum fertility are explained here. Researchers in New Zealand, at AgResearch, Landcare Research, Victoria University and...

Genetic modification of organisms is a very controversial issue in New Zealand. Regulatory controls have been developed to try to manage the risk of research using...

Biological control, or biocontrol, is the use of a living organism, or the product of a living organism, to control the numbers of another organism, usually...

Possums are one of New Zealand's biggest pests. Currently they are controlled by poisoning and trapping, but this is expensive and ongoing. Biological control has the...

Biotechnology is part of everyday life and has been for thousands of years. People have cultured bacteria to make yoghurt and cheese, used yeasts to make...