The new booklet ‘Common Insect Pests and Diseases of New Zealand Native Plants’ is now available. New Zealand’s native species have a range of insect pests and diseases associated with them, many of which are native, common and not known to cause significant damage

This booklet can be used to help educate people about plant diseases allowing them to broadly identify what insect pests and diseases they may come across in their whenua. It can also help readers separate those common diseases from potentially new diseases that could become damaging to native trees such as myrtle rust or kauri dieback.

Each insect pest and pathogen is described in detail with large photographs to make identification easy. A full glossary, including Māori and scientific names of the insect pests, diseases, and host plants is included.

The booklet came about from Te Rātā Whakamaru, a Jobs for Nature funded programme. This project was a collaboration between Scion, Rotoiti 15 trust and the Department of Conservation.

The programme was tasked with creating jobs that supported nature. Te Rātā Whakamaru established roles for surveying and monitoring myrtle rust in the Bay of Plenty area. Additionally, the project sought to identify possible disease-resistant ramarama and rōhutu plants for the propagation of resistant planting material. While the Te Rātā Whakamaru team learned how to identify myrtle rust and the host plants it is associated with, they encountered other pests and diseases on native trees.

This prompted the development of this field-orientated booklet to educate not only the Te Rātā Whakamaru team but others interested in the health of native plants, including forest owners, managers, regional councils, botanic gardens, restoration planting contractors and kura. Unlike myrtle rust, which is an invasive pathogen that is devastating many of our native Myrtaceae, most of our common insect pests and diseases are endemic and rarely cause widespread damage on our native plants.

The booklet is available to download or contact Scion's Kiryn Dobbie to enquire about a hardcopy.

With the aid of this new booklet, if you suspect a new disease or pest, report it to the Ministry of Primary Industries immediately on 0800 80  99 66 or at https://report.mpi.govt.nz/pest.