AQIS officers are the ‘private eyes’ of the pest underworld—they’re adept at finding, investigating and tracking pests to their origins.

AQIS officers John Braniska and Andrew Czelusta recently collected egg masses on shipping containers at the Melbourne docks and sent them to AQIS’s entomologists for identification.

Not only were the entomologists able to identify the eggs as belonging to the feared Asian gypsy moth (AGM) but Jenny Morrison, of Brisbane’s operational science program, used genetic sequencing to pin down their origin.

Jenny first compared the eggs’ genetic sequence to known AGM sequences in the Genebank library. She then investigated the movement of containers during the AGM’s egg laying period and deduced that the eggs came from Qingdau, in northern China, and Pusan in South Korea.

AQIS’s Adam Broadley says the Asian gypsy moth is capable of environmental devastation.

‘The caterpillars of Asian gypsy moth eat over 500 plant species in their native far east Russia, China, Korea and Japan and we know they will also eat eucalypts,’ said Adam.

‘During the northern hemisphere summer the female moths lay egg masses of up to 1200 eggs on many surfaces, including shipping containers. It is critical that egg masses are removed as soon as they arrive in Australian ports because once the eggs hatch, the young caterpillars can be blown around by wind and larvae can be dispersed easily into the vegetation around port areas.‘

Due to the high risk posed by Asian gypsy moths, AQIS identifies and monitors vessels from AGM-affected countries and state agriculture departments set traps around port areas to act as early warning systems.