Clever Ideas to Beat Pests, New Solutions Proposed by Auckland University Ecologist
Wednesday 23 September 2015, 12:46PM
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Starting mid-September until October 2, people all over the country are free to share their ideas for environment protection in World Wildlife Fund (WWF) New Zealand’s Conservation Innovation Awards 2015.
Innovators are to come up with new concepts, gadgets and tools that may support the work of frontline conservation volunteers throughout the country. The award has three categories—product, community project and research—and $25,000 prize money for each category winner. Interested innovators may submit their ideas to wwf.org.nz/innovation through a new crowdsourcing website.
Awards coordinator Lee Barry said that the ideas are open, so registered site users may comment and post their feedback. Conservation visionary Devon McLean and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Matthew Monahan are the independent panel who will be judging the entries this year.
New Zealand Herald asks renowned Auckland University ecologist, Dr James Russell, to propose ideas that may help New Zealand win the battle for a predator-free country. Here are some of them:
“Drones could have application in pest control for everything, from precision deployment of toxin, bait stations or traps to active search and detection of newly invading pests,” Dr Russell said.
He added that species specificity, or the use of species recognition technology, alongside the latest detection technologies, may have a chance in identifying targets (pests) before killing them. This is because current control tools may have an unintended effect on other species.
Dr Russell mentioned solar-powered self-baiting traps, as well. “Multi-use self-resetting traps are already becoming a powerful tool in pest control today, but must still be serviced after a set period,” he believes.
If all remarkable entries in this innovation awards were to come to life, BuzzOff Pest Control says that these may help improve the operations of businesses offering domestic pest control in Auckland and commercial pest control throughout New Zealand.