The Department of Agriculture is working to eradicate three exotic beetles that have been detected in timber pallets imported from China. Source: ABC News
The beetles detected so far, are the Asian longhorned, the mulberry longhorn and the Japanese pine sawyer beetles.
Microscopic parasites called nematodes, which live in beetles and can kill trees, have been detected in some of the sawyer beetles.
All 337 containers have been traced and the majority have been ordered into quarantine pending fumigation.
The product transported on the pallets was gypsum plasterboard but it doesn’t pose a biosecurity risk.
The Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce said that if established, the woodboring beetles have the potential to ‘devastate’ Australia’s timber, apple and pear plantations and destroy forests and native bush.
He’s urging anyone who has recently received pallets from China to check for the pests.
“We believe we’ve got all the pallets except a few around Adelaide,” he said. “I don’t think these beetles came in by reason of people wishing to break the law, it happened by accident.
“This is not the fab four. This is the terrible three. Let’s try and track them down and kill them.”
The mulberry beetle kills softwood trees, while the Asian longhorned and sawyer beetles attack hardwood.
Mr Joyce said that ‘billions of dollars’ are at stake if any of the beetles remain in the country.
The Asian longhorned beetle and the sawyer beetles are large and conspicuous and recognised by their horns or antennae, while the mulberry longhorn beetle is yellow in colour.
To report an incursion or for more information call 1800 195 543.
