Pest inquiry

Report

Introduction

Since the 1960s a pest has been thriving under our noses, if you have ever seen it you would have thought it was a native Skink, but it is not. And it alone could push our rare native Skinks to extinction, we know it as the Plague Skink. We have determined that the best way to mitigate/eradicate their deleterious effects is to inform the public of their presence and spread traps around the bop. In this report we will give a brief talk about Plague Skinks history, establish the problem, inform you and compare the current solutions, and explain how we came about this solution.

History

Plague skinks are originally from Australia and are native in that area. They accidentally migrated to New Zealand in the 1960s to Auckland through cargo shipments as they are excellent stowaways. Plague skinks were first noticed in the 1960s in Auckland at the Otahuhu rail yards and further spread around the waikato. Plague skinks have not only spread to New New Zealand but also hawaii. Plague skinks were introduced into Hawaii in the 1980s where they quickly colonized across the whole island and are now the most numerous skink in hawaii. Plague Skinks were monitored throughout the 1900s to the 2000s but still managed to spread to the south island in the river lands of Blenheim and in havelock.

Food Web

Plague skinks cause many effects on the food web, one of those being food. New Zealand's food web is made perfectly so that each species affects each other. But this perfection can’t stay for long. Every time you take away or add another species to a country's food web it affects other species sometimes a lot or little. Plague skinks is one of those species, seeing as Plague skinks are an introduced species they pose an enormous threat on other native lizards. Plague skinks are a consumer, so when they were added to the food web they became yet another consumer. This leads to depletion of food in the ecosystem. Plague skinks also increase the threat of diseases spreading around the country.

Problem

Plague skinks are a major threat to New Zealand's native skinks, Plague skinks have been competing with our native species ever since they were introduced. Plague skinks pose an enormous threat to native skinks by consuming their food and destroying their habitats. Plague skinks lay up to 24 eggs a year in comparison to native skinks they lay up to 6 young per a year. Because of this Plague skinks are pushing down native skinks numbers and even causing some skinks to go extinct. Plague skinks also become sexauly mature much faster causing native skinks to become overwhelmed because plague skinks population increases so fast. But that's not it Plague skinks diet also includes baby natvie skinks! This is why Plague skinks are a pest in New Zealand and are being eradicated.

Control Method 1

The first method we found was quite an unlikely one, but works better than you would think, Chickens. In 2013 Plague Skinks were discovered in Great Barrier island, Jacqueline Wairepo and Dr Jamie Mackay launched an experimental project in an attempt to eradicate Plague Skinks there. They fenced up an area and had the Chickens specially trained to find and kill Plague Skinks. The benefits are, local farmers can bring in their chickens for free, the fence can be moved to different areas. The downsides are, the fences are expensive, lots of people have to be involved. Overall, this is a good strategy but, in this case the consequences cancel outweigh the benefits.

Links: Auckland Council 1 News

Control Method 2

The second method is definitely a likely one, dogs. Dogs are a good method because unlike chickens, they can be trained way better, and more thorough. Also, if traveling earlier in the year there is a greater chance of stumbling across a nest which can vary from 3 eggs to around 100, which is another effective way of mitigating the deleterious effects Plague Skinks cause. But each dog requires a handler to monitor and take care of it. This is a good method but requires a lot of work and training.

Control Method 3

Traps have always been the go-to method for pest control but will they be Plague Skink kryptonite? There are many types of Plague Skink traps but for this evaluation I will evaluate the sticky traps used by the forest and bird: marlborough branch. Note, we contacted Marlborough forest and bird via gmail, and all of this information was provided by them Link here. Sticky traps are a live capture, effective, trusted, way of capturing Plague Skinks. They are effective because anyone can use and monitor them. In fact elderly volunteers work with fab by monitoring them. People of the public can help, like one lizard enthusiast who helped fab by positioning traps for them. The downsides are, the public had to stop during covid, (but can currently once again operate) and, native lizards can rarely be trapped but, as a live capture they are checked every day and can be set free. This method is highly effective.