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ABC News
16 hours ago
- Science
- ABC News
The polyphagous shot-hole borer kills trees. Why is it so lethal, how is it treated, and can it spread across Australia?
The Western Australian government yesterday announced that it would stop trying to eradicate an invasive pest that's killing trees in and around Perth and start managing it instead. The pest, the polyphagous shot-hole borer (Euwallacea fornicatus), is a tiny beetle native to South-East Asia that has been silently spreading in the Perth metropolitan area for at least four years. The only approved treatment for the sesame-seed-sized pest is to chop down plants it has infested and chip them into tiny pieces. It's something that local councils have been forced to do to hundreds of trees, including dozens of huge, old Moreton Bay figs, to try to stop the beetle's spread. Last year, a $41 million plan was approved to wipe the pest from Australia's shores, but the WA state government this week said eradication was now no longer feasible. So why is this particular pest so problematic, and if it can't be eradicated, are there other treatments on the horizon? The beetle drills tunnels into tree trunks and branches, leaving distinctive "shot holes" in the bark. But despite being adept at chewing through wood, the polyphagous shot-hole borer doesn't eat it. Wood is mostly made of cellulose which, while plentiful, is incredibly hard to digest. "No animal has evolved the capacity to do this on its own — they always do it with a microbial friend," Theo Evans, an entomologist at the University of Western Australia, said. "With termites, for example, they have a range of bacteria and protozoa. In the case of these wood-boring beetles, they use a fungus," Dr Evans said. The fungus eats the wood, and the beetle eats the fungus. And it's the fungus — not the beetle, nor its tunnels — that ends up killing the tree. Once inside a branch or trunk, the growing fungus needs water, so it sends out filaments to tap into the tree's circulatory system. These fungal filaments can block those vessels, and essentially starve the tree of water and nutrients. The pest was first detected in WA in East Fremantle in August 2021 when a resident noticed two box elder maples in her garden looked unwell, and had shot holes in their bark. It was soon confirmed that the infestation was the polyphagous shot-hole borer, a pest that had been wreaking havoc in places like California, Israel and South Africa for more than a decade. But while this was the first confirmed report of the beetle in the state (and Australia more broadly), it would not have been the site of the first infestation, Dr Evans said. "Those trees were dying, so the beetles must have been in those trees for a minimum of two years, and possibly three or four because it takes that long … for the fungus to spread through the tree and clog its vascular system." It's also unclear how the beetle reached WA in the first place. What seems likeliest is the pest hitched a ride on wood used as packaging or filler around large, heavy items such as farm machinery, Dr Evans said. This wood filler, called dunnage, is supposed to be treated to kill any pests inside, but sometimes that doesn't happen. The beetle can survive in cut wood for up to seven months. Being a beetle, the polyphagous shot-hole borer has wings, but "it's a terrible flyer", Dr Evans said, capable of only flying around 30 metres at a time. "When you're only 1.5 millimetres long and you spend most of your life living inside a tree, you're not going to be an acrobat." Nor does it get transported on the wind. The minute a breeze picks up, the beetle retreats into a tunnel until it dies down again. It's thought the pest spread across the Perth metropolitan area in plant prunings. For instance, affected branches lopped off by arborists to protect power lines could've been unwittingly transported kilometres away. Chipping infested wood to under 2.5 centimetres results in a shot-hole borer death rate of more than 99 per cent. But "if it's a mature tree and it's got literally tens of thousands of beetles in it, that's still hundreds of beetles that survive", Dr Evans said. The shot-hole borer attacks WA native forest trees, including the marri (Corymbia calophylla) and karri (Eucalyptus diversicolor). "These are important trees, not just for the WA bush, but there are close relatives throughout the bush across Australia," Dr Evans said. "Now we don't know how badly affected the trees are going to become, because normally when the beetles are found infesting the trees, they get cut down and chipped. "So we don't see if the tree can survive a long time with the beetle … but it could end up being quite bad." Nor do we know exactly how the shot-hole borer might affect orchard trees in Australia. There is some information from fruit trees grown in Perth backyards, but nothing from commercial operations outside of the city. One lesson learnt from growers overseas is in avocados. The fruit seems to be highly susceptible to the polyphagous shot-hole borer, but the beetle tends to attack branches rather than the trunk. "With some careful pruning, which obviously costs more money and it does lower productivity of the tree a little, people in Israel and parts of the US have found that it's not a particularly bad problem," Dr Evans said. That said, when avocado trees were introduced into Australia, we managed to avoid bringing any pest species with them. So if the polyphagous shot-hole borer gets into local avocado orchards, "it will actually be quite a big problem, because growers don't have to think about those sorts of insect pests [at the moment]", he added. And just because the pest has behaved a certain way abroad does not mean it will act the same way here. The beetle has attacked Moreton Bay fig trees in Perth, but has had less of an impact on figs overseas. "So there's obviously local variation, probably a combination of the climate, the soil type, and water availability that changes the susceptibility of the plants," Dr Evans said. It's hard to say, Dr Evans said. Unsurprisingly, the beetle seems to thrive in climates similar to its native home. So while it might not do too well in relatively chilly Tasmania, it may well get a foothold along the east coast, especially from Brisbane up. Annual long, hot summers and wet winters may make plants more susceptible to the pest too. During punishingly dry summers, water-stressed plants may simply have very little capacity to fend off the beetle and fungus combination, and simply succumb to infestation. Trials mostly in the US have tested a handful of insecticides against the shot-hole borer with very little success — mostly because they were sprayed chemicals that might've landed on the bark of the tree, but couldn't get to the beetle inside its tunnel. So researchers, including Dr Evans, are trialling a combination of insecticide (to kill the beetle) and fungicide (to kill the fungus), which can be administered inside the tree. While he can't comment on his findings yet, "the results are very promising", he said. "We'll never get rid of [the need to] chop and chip. I think there are going to be some trees that are just too far gone and chop and chip is the only option. "But for trees that are early in the infestation, I think some of these methods are going to work and they're going to save the tree." For more on the polyphagous shot-hole borer, check out the full episode of Lab Notes.
BBC News
2 days ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Council leader seeks referendum on Lancashire elected mayor
The leader of Lancashire County Council is to ask the government for permission to hold a referendum on an elected mayor and the scrapping of the county's local UK's Stephen Atkinson, who is also chair of the county's combined authority, is scheduled to meet Local Government Minister Jim McMahon on is calling for a "legally binding referendum", saying the views of the people of Lancashire "need to be listened to".The government wants to scrap all 15 of Lancashire's councils and replace them with three or four larger unitary authorities, which would provide all services under an elected mayor. The BBC has asked the department of local government and communities for a response. McMahon had previously asked Lancashire local authorities to set out a shared vision for the county after the councils they control are abolished, but so far no consensus has been year, political leaders from Lancashire County Council, Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool councils signed a devolution deal with the government to create a Combined County has some powers devolved to it from the government, but not as many as areas with an elected mayor. Atkinson has been a long standing critic of the mayoral model of government, but said: "Reform's position is that people need to be consulted, so it's not about personal thoughts and beliefs on these big issues that have a profound impact on Lancashire families, they really need to have their say."He has already written to McMahon in a formal letter on this subject, but said he had not had a response so far. 'Widest consultation' If the government was to allow a referendum to go ahead, Atkinson estimated it could cost about £2.5m to hold the said: "We can only really do that if the government is going to listen to the result of it." If the government said no to holding a referendum, Atkinson said the council would have to have the "widest consultation possible"."There's 1.5 million people and we've really got to reach into all areas of the population to make sure people's views are listened to," he was made chair of the combined authority at the first meeting since Reform UK won control of Lancashire County Council from the Conservatives in May's local election. Listen to the best of BBC Radio Lancashire on BBC Sounds and follow BBC Lancashire on Facebook, X and Instagram and watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer.
Telegraph
13-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Farage promises war on ‘woke' council pensions
Reform UK could block local councils from investing in 'woke' schemes that are leaving taxpayers on the hook for tens of millions of pounds. The right-of-centre political party swept to victory in the local elections this month and now controls 10 councils across England. It means councillors will hold key roles overseeing more than £100bn of assets within the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), which pays for the retirements of millions of council workers. Around half of the funds within the LGPS have established net zero targets that aim to invest more money in low-carbon initiatives, such as renewable energy. But Nigel Farage, Reform UK leader, told The Telegraph he wanted pension fund managers to prioritise maximising return on investments instead. 'We want the money invested for growth not for political posturing.' Richard Tice, deputy leader of Reform UK, told the Financial Times that the LGPS was 'riddled with underperforming net zero investments' and that the party would 'be looking closely' at the scheme. LGPS assets can include shares in companies, bonds, property, transport and energy infrastructure, as well as private equity deals. These investments are spread across 87 autonomous funds controlled by town halls in England and Wales, with investment managers reporting to committees made up of local councillors. Reform is projected to have at least one councillor on committees that together control more than £100bn in assets, of which £30bn is estimated to be overseen by committees where the party's councillors will hold a majority of seats. The analysis, which was first reported by the Financial Times, shows the party stands to have significant influence in deciding how pension pots are invested. Mr Tice said: 'The MP's pension fund is riddled with net zero investments that are underperforming and has 32pc of its assets invested in illiquids that are probably overvalued.' He said that a 'net zero obsession leaves the taxpayer on the hook for tens of millions of pounds.' The pension scheme for MPs is worth £862m and is currently in surplus. One low-carbon fund the parliamentary scheme has invested in, managed by BlackRock, had a return of 22.1pc in 2024 and 17.3pc in 2023, slightly better than the target benchmark. 'We are going to be looking closely at this and I'll be very grumpy if these pension schemes have bigger deficits because they've been underperforming because of woke investments,' Mr Tice added. So-called environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment funds are usually made up from shares in companies belonging to sectors such as renewable energy and low-carbon technology. Investors withdrew a record $8.6bn (£6.5bn) from ESG funds in the first quarter of the year after Donald Trump was re-elected US president and politicians in Europe shifted their focus to economic growth and defence spending. Many of the individual funds within the LGPS have set out plans to shift investment to support net zero, which could include investing in more ESG funds. Analysis by consultancy XPS Group last year showed 49pc of LGPS funds were aiming for a net zero investment portfolio by 2050. Just over a quarter had directly invested in green initiatives like reforestation and renewable energy. The LGPS has 6.7 million members, of whom 2.1 million are paying between 5.5pc and 12.5pc of their yearly salary to the scheme, while councils contribute as much as 18pc. The latest market valuation of the LGPS said it was worth £391bn in total. Steve Webb, a partner at Lane Clark & Peacock, a pensions consultancy, said investing in companies that support net zero targets was a good strategy for growth. 'The basic idea is that climate change is happening, whatever you may think the causes are, and that it makes sense to invest knowing that this is the case. For example, if you think demand for solar panels is going to increase, then investing in solar panel firms makes commercial sense, whatever your views on net zero. 'Likewise, money will need to be spent on mitigation or adaptation to deal with climate change, [for] example spending more on flood defences, so there may be a case for investing for a return in businesses which specialise in climate adaptation, not for ideological reasons but for commercial reasons.'
