Recruiting citizen shot-hole borer scientists at Perth Royal Show

• Citizen scientists to boost battle against the shot-hole borer
• Display at Perth Royal Show will help community to identify the pest
• Public reports key to supporting $44 million shot-hole borer biosecurity response

Western Australian families are urged to join the fight against the polyphagous shot-hole borer by visiting the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) display at the Perth Royal Show.

The tiny beetle from South East Asia is having a big impact on Perth’s urban canopy and the public plays a key role in early detection.

Visitors to the DPIRD display can get training to help identify and report the borer, before graduating as a certified ‘DPIRD Discoverer’.

Children can also participate in a ‘Where’s Poly?’ scavenger hunt to learn how to search for signs of shot-hole borer, including multiple entrance holes in tree trunks or branches, frass or sawdust, dieback and dark galleries.

Training also includes how to use magnifier cards to inspect trees, which recruits can take home, as well as creating helmets – or headbands – to warn others about the borer.

Parents will be shown how to download the MyPestGuide Reporter app to report observations direct to DPIRD.

DPIRD officers will be on hand to explain the new Quarantine Area movement restrictions for the Perth metropolitan area and the department’s extensive surveillance and trapping campaign, which extends to the regions.

Community surveillance has been essential to the success of the biosecurity response, with more than 3,700 public reports of suspect sightings of the shot-hole borer received since it was first detected two-and-a-half years ago.

Public reports assist DPIRD’s more than 150-strong response team, that inspected more than two million trees to date.

To enlist to be a ‘DPIRD Discoverer’ and find out more about the shot-hole borer and the biosecurity response, visit the DPIRD display in the Farm 2 Food Pavilion at the Perth Royal Show.

As stated by Agriculture and Food Minister Jackie Jarvis:

“We need everyone’s help in the battle against the shot-hole borer and community surveillance and reporting is so important because early detection is key.

“It was a public report in 2021 that led to our first shot-hole borer detection and triggered the State’s biggest ever biosecurity response.

“Biosecurity is everyone’s responsibility, and I encourage the community to visit DPIRD’s display at the Perth Royal Show and download the MyPestGuide Reporter app to report suspect pests and diseases to DPIRD.”