Authorities in WA are spearheading a national program to eradicate an invasive beetle killing trees across Perth. The shot-hole borer could strip tree canopies in Australia's capital cities. But the full extent of the tiny pest's potential is unknown and experts fear not enough is being done to stop it in its tracks.
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00:00These trees are densely featured in other cities.
00:04If you look at the tree canopy cover across Sydney and Brisbane, figs are a much bigger
00:09feature than they are here.
00:10Look at the coverage of plane trees in Melbourne.
00:13If we lose all of those, those cities will be very different places.
00:18The beetle has already caused billions of dollars of destruction in South Africa, North
00:24America and Israel, ripping through avocado, macadamia and mango trees.
00:30Back home, if the pest escapes its quarantine zone in Perth, it's unclear how it could
00:36affect the rest of the country.
00:38The problem is, is we don't know how much impact the beetle could have, both in terms
00:42of social, environmental and economic impacts.
00:45And until you actually quantify that, it's really hard to justify how much to spend on
00:51an eradication program.
00:54The current price tag is $41 million to eradicate the beetle the only proven way, by chopping
01:02or pruning infected trees.
01:05At the moment, there have been no effective chemical treatments found anywhere in the
01:09world.
01:10But scientists, part of an advisory group, say there's a range of unexplored possibilities,
01:15Not only to kill shot hole borer, but slow its spread, as the pest enters what some experts
01:21predict will be an explosive phase in the warmer months.
01:26So we've tested well under 1% of the full range of products, several biocontrol options
01:33that are effective against a wide range of beetle species, which are available in Australia
01:38now and nobody has tested those options.
01:41But they're worried their advice is not being heard, and say WA's Department of Primary
01:45Industries, known as DPIRD, is being too secretive at such a critical time.
01:52I know DPIRD is doing a little bit of research, but they're not telling us what they're doing.
01:57They give us little snippets, but we don't know the fullest extent.
02:01We all need to be digging in.
02:02The impact for not achieving success in this space is too great to walk away from.
02:08A race against the clock to eradicate this tiny pest with a massive impact.