Niue will become the first country in the Pacific to welcome a leaf-feeding beetle that researchers hope will control the spread of the invasive air potato vines or known locally as hoi.
A team from the Manaaki Whenua– Landcare Research in New Zealand are on the island this week to deliver the first Pacific air potato leaf beetle eggs with the first release held on Monday led by Niue’s Minister of Natural Resources – Hon. Mona Ainuu and New Zealand High Commissioner-HE. Mark Gibb.
BCN News spoke with Weed Bio Control Technician-Robyn White who is part of the team working on this project.
The team brought over 200 eggs, releasing 30 on Monday with more to be released throughout the week.
Biodiversity and Conservation officer-Huggard Tongatule shares more on how this Project came about back in 2020.
The Air potato leaf beetles will be directly released in the field where they will gradually build up in numbers, dispersing to all air potato infestation on the island over time.
While the air potato leaf beetle is a new natural enemy for the Pacific, the beetle has been extensively studied by researchers in the United States and was first released in Florida and other southern states in 2012.
The team hopes the project will be a success in Niue with future collaborations of other invasive species present on the island so as to find other ways of reducing impacts in the near future.
There was also a stakeholders meeting held on Monday on further discussions for more bio control targets for Niue in the future.
The air potato leaf beetles will attack all forms of air potato and no other plants are at risk and are not toxic to the environment.
The invasive air potato vines has become invasive in several Pacific Islands, including Fiji, French Polynesia, Palau, Tonga, and Wallis and Futuna.
The research work on air potato is a part of the Pacific Regional Invasive Species Management Support Service (PRISMSS) Restoring Island Resilience programme, which is funded by New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and administered by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).