This story first appeared in the April issue of AutoTalk – CLICK HERE to download the magazine FREE
Mark Furner
The brown mamorated stink bug (BMSB) has put Australian shipping ports on high alert over the 2018-19 stink bug season and the automotive industry has played a role.
According to the Queensland minister of agricultural industry development, Mark Furner, Brisbane narrowly avoided a potential outbreak of halyomorpha halys, as it’s scientifically known, with 25 different consignments destined for Brisbane detecting the pest.
Three separate incidents occurred in Lytton and Fisherman Islands, and New Chum near Ipswich, where biosecurity officers engaged in an “emergency programme” and “response operations” took place for stink bugs “initially detected, post quarantine on a variety of imported cargo including machinery imported from China”, the department says.
“Biosecurity Queensland officers worked in close partnership with staff from the Australian Department of Agriculture and Water Resources to respond to the threat,” Furner’s department says.
“Insecticide was applied to fruiting vegetation at each site and large insect traps set,” it reveals.
With an unconfirmed number of roll-on-roll-off cargo ships turned away during this stink bug season (September to April), Furner’s office says the potential for ecological disaster is getting worse every year.
“Some interceptions involve entire ships with hundreds of vehicles and many hundreds or possibly thousands of BMSB throughout the holds,” the department concedes.
“Some of these large infestations generated multiple quarantine management actions as the infested ships brought cargo to several ports around Australia.”
Delays by stink bug detection have caused significant supply delays for OEMs in Australia, as reported by Carsales in January.
Volkswagen had 1800 vehicles held up due to stink bugs, and Mercedes-Benz Australia says its vehicles have been affected; and Nissan Australia says its supplies have been held ransom to the pests as far back as 2015.
VW Group Australia managing director Michael Bartsch says: “The galling and frustrating part is that it’s not us, our cars are clean.
“It has come from somewhere else .
because the boats have picked up cargo from somewhere else,” he tells Carsales.
Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries chief executive Tony Weber has acknowledged the problem is rampant.
“There are a lot of brands involved.It’s where the brands manufacture, not just where their head office is.And there can be issues of contamination … through trans-shipment,” he says.
AutoTalk has pressed the department about what it plans to do to stop the situation turning for the worse as the pest spreads overseas and in Australia’s imports – including vehicles from host countries of manufacture.
In the year-to-date ending February, nearly 125,000 new cars manufactured in Japan, Thailand, Korea and China were reported sold in Australia, plus there’s the number of specialist enthusiast imports including late-modern and classic cars, more of which will be able to enter under new legislation.
Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics, according to the New York Times, operates RORO cargo ships which can carry up to 8000 vehicles packed inches from each other on 13 decks in a single voyage.That’s roughly 15 journeys from those countries where the stink bug is native.
Worse still, as recently as November last year, homes in Paris over winter were found with hibernating masses of stink bugs in the Jardin des Plantes gardens – over 1000 French-built cars were reported sold in Australia in the year to February – meaning there’s a chance vehicles brought into Australia from European factories also have the potential to bring the pest.
The BMSB is one of the targets in the department’s National Plant Health Surveillance and National Border Surveillance Programmes, which uses odorous lure techniques to trap and destroy the critters which can kill maize and soybean seedlings, malform fruit and vegetable crops, and cause premature fruit to drop.
They most commonly hitchhike in large numbers seeking shelter from cold weather in crevices or protected areas of imported shipping containers, vehicles, boats, caravans, machinery or even car parts.
The Department of Agriculture and Water Resources says the automotive industry – including car manufacturers and exporters – can assist by working to “reduce the likelihood of vehicles being exposed to BMSB and ensuring any mandatory offshore treatments are preformed effectively”.
DAWR says shipping lines are in a “difficult position” but can assist by ensuring risky cargo is “managed and treated to reduce the likelihood of live BMSB being present”.
“They can also manage cargo on-board through segregation, so that potentially problematic cargo can be identified,” DAWR says.