{"id":271173,"date":"2026-02-06T20:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T20:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/271173\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T20:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T20:08:09","slug":"country-life-good-vibes-in-the-greenhouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/271173\/","title":{"rendered":"Country Life: Good vibes in the greenhouse"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Rachel<\/p>\n

\nDr Rachael Horner of the Bioeconomy Science Institute was tasked with counting the tiny whitefly eggs
\nPhoto: Craig Robertson \/ Bioeconomy Science Institute\n<\/p>\n

In orchards and glasshouses around the motu growers make use of integrated pest management – a series of tools to minimise the impact of pest insects.<\/p>\n

These can include bio warfare, growing pest-resistant crops and using chemical sprays.<\/p>\n

But might there be more new tools to add<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Many pest insects<\/a> communicate using vibrations and the study of this communication is called biotremology.<\/p>\n

Researchers from the Bioeconomy Science Institute are investigating whether they can apply what they know about biotremology to use vibrations to disrupt pest insects in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Our Changing World’s Claire Concannon went along to the tomato growing greenhouse where the tools had been tested.<\/p>\n

Follow Country Life on Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a>, iHeart<\/a> or wherever you get your podcasts.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\nPete Mundy has allowed scientists to use his tomato-growing operation as a research trial site.
\nPhoto: Claire Concannon\n<\/p>\n

\"Close<\/p>\n

\nGreenhouse whitefly is a pest with a preference for tomato plants.
\nPhoto: Craig Robertson \/ Bioeconomy Science Institute\n<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\nDr Lloyd Stringer, entomologist at the Bioeconomy Science Institute, is leading the research.
\nPhoto: Craig Robertson \/ Bioeconomy Science Institute\n<\/p>\n

The trial’s finished now and they didn’t find a big difference between the control and treatment areas, although there was a trend towards lower egg laying in the plots being treated.<\/p>\n

In the next trial they plan to play the vibration signal more frequently to see if that makes a difference.<\/p>\n

Claire Concannon dives deeper into biotremology on the latest episode of Our Changing World<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dr Rachael Horner of the Bioeconomy Science Institute was tasked with counting the tiny whitefly eggs Photo: Craig…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-271173","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}