- Joined
- May 24, 2012
- Messages
- 16,439
- Reaction score
- 116,570
ABC News Australia
Ladybugs set loose at Australian Parliament House in Canberra over summer to take out pests
When politicians and most staff are away from Canberra for the summer holidays, a ravenous group of fly-in workers descend on Parliament House.
They come with a mission to suck the guts out of the pests around the symbolic heart of democracy.
Nick Jordan walks through the halls of power carrying an important cardboard box.
Inside are half a dozen punnets of ladybugs, which the integrated pest management officer will release in different outdoor courtyards around the building.
The four different species of ladybugs are sent from around Australia to eat aphids that can cause severe damage to trees and gardens by feeding on plant sap.
The ladybugs are one of several "beneficial insects" Mr Jordan uses in his job to try keeping ecosystems in balance without using strong chemicals.
He said there were hundreds of thousands of aphids all across the courtyards and gardens of Parliament.
Yet the ladybugs are insatiable eaters and will eat up to 100 aphids per day.
"They'll run around, herd the aphids up and suck the insides out of them," he said.
"They're voracious feeders.
"Even though over summer there aren't many people around the building, the bugs are still hard at work."
'Obvious solution'
CSIRO entomologist Adam Ślipiński wrote two books about Australian ladybugs and said using them at Parliament House was an "obvious solution".
Dr Ślipiński said the ladybugs were very efficient aphid eaters, could be easily bred in captivity, lived a long time and could be easily transported.
"There are not that many predators of aphids in Australia or worldwide," he said.
"You can bring in one million ladybirds, put them on the plants and they will eat those aphids."
But he said they would never completely wipe out the aphid population because, as the aphid population decreased, the ladybugs would move away, allowing the aphid population to increase again in a cycle that would continue.
