04/Q02 Blue Heliotrope Biological Control

Summary

This project and its predecessor were not strictly successful, because the project team did not meet its goal of engaging groups of producers in different areas, and breeding and distributing blue heliotrope beetles. The fungus that devastated the breeding colonies and the continued drought impacted heavily on the success of the project. One of hottest and driest summers on record made the assessment of continued colonisation difficult. Finding release sites was difficult the group will have to wait until next growing season to assess the results on both the established sites and new sites.
In retrospect, a 3 to 4 year initial project time frame would have been more appropriate for a beetle with its life cycle. Producers associated with this project were keen to be involved in the planning, and attendance at working bees was good. Having the support of an agency to supply ongoing labour is important in this type of project. Producer groups can fabricate breeding cages and associated protective structures, but providing the ongoing labour would be an issue for most groups.