Australian Farms Face Threat From Deadly Sap-Sucking Bug

Summary

Two major olive farm­ers in Western Australia have had to cull 7,000 adult olive trees due to an Olive Lace Bug out­break, which has been declared endemic to the area, threat­en­ing cur­rent and future olive yields. The bug, native to Eastern Australia, poses a sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenge to farm­ers as it lives and breeds under­neath the leaves and can develop immu­nity to com­mon chem­i­cal treat­ments, poten­tially spread­ing fur­ther through machin­ery and sea­sonal work­ers.

Two major Western Australian olive farm­ers have been forced to cull close to 7,000 adult olive trees that have been infested by the deadly Olive Lace Bug (Froggattia Olivinia) in an out­break that has been offi­cially declared endemic to the area.

The Olive Lace Bug (mem­ber of the Hemiptera fam­ily of sap suck­ing bugs) is native to Eastern Australia and its spread is par­tic­u­larly con­cern­ing for olive grow­ers located in the West of Australia and New South Wales as it can dra­mat­i­cally impact an olive tree’s cur­rent and future yield, with the dam­age last­ing for up to two years in some instances.

Treating the prob­lem can prove chal­leng­ing to farm­ers as the Olive Lace Bug lives, eats and breeds under­neath the leaf, which mak­ing it dif­fi­cult to detect unless each tree is closely mon­i­tored.

The pop­u­la­tion of the Olive Lace Bug will mul­ti­ply rapidly if left untreated, mak­ing a multi-stage treat­ment pro­to­col nec­es­sary to ensure the bugs have been com­pletely erad­i­cated.

There is no spe­cific pre­scribed treat­ment for elim­i­nat­ing the pest from infected groves and experts rec­om­mend using insec­ti­ci­dal soap sprays such as pyrethrum. This treat­ment option is not favored by farm­ers as it runs the risk of dam­ag­ing nearby bees and ben­e­fi­cial insects as well as com­pro­mis­ing the integrity of the soil.

The harm to ben­e­fi­cial insects can lead to a pop­u­la­tion increase of other pests that were pre­vi­ously kept in check. There have also been reported instances of the Olive Lace Bug devel­op­ing immu­nity to com­monly used chem­i­cal treat­ments.

The bug has not found its way out­side of Australia’s bor­ders, but there is lim­ited research avail­able on an inter­na­tional level on con­trol­ling its pop­u­la­tion. Farmers are con­cerned that the bug could spread even fur­ther as it has been known to attach itself to machin­ery and even sea­sonal work­ers trav­el­ing from farm to farm, mak­ing its rapid spread a con­cern among stake­hold­ers.

Only time will tell of the mea­sures put in place to elim­i­nate the infes­ta­tion were suc­cess­ful. Experts in pest con­trol say farm­ers will need to wait until the fol­low­ing year when new sea­sonal growth com­mences, to see if the tell-tale yel­low, mot­tled leaves are present.

The Australian olive oil indus­try has expe­ri­enced explo­sive growth over the past few years, with annual pro­duc­tion increas­ing by an aver­age of almost fifty per­cent between 2010 and 2015, yet the coun­try remains a rel­a­tively small player in the inter­na­tional mar­ket, account­ing for less than 0.5 per­cent of the world’s total olive oil pro­duc­tion.

• ABC Australia


• The Government of Western Australia Department of Agriculture and Food


• Australian Government Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation