Consultation heads new weapon to combat wasps

She is part of a collaborative Endeavour Fund awarded project with the University of Otago “Whatu raranga o ngā koiora – weaving cultural authority into gene-drives targeting wasps” which has a five-year duration and secured an almost $11 million grant.

With the melodic songs and calls of native birds being replaced by a low menacing thrum of hordes of the introduced wasps in some of New Zealand's forests, novel ways to combat the destructive pests are being sought.

Wasps were accidentally introduced into New Zealand in the 1940s 

Professor Black, who is the Director of Bioprotection Aotearoa, a national Centre of Research Excellence based at Lincoln University, said chemicals were proving ineffective against the growing problem, so something new had to be tried.

Her role in the project is to talk to the people who would be directly affected by its practical application, such as around issues like gene editing, to see the most appropriate way for it to be delivered to meet cultural values and gain social acceptance.

She said it pointed to how projects would be run in the future.

“The social research feeds into the science.”

“Wasps are a massive problem,” Professor Black said.

“There is a greater biomass of wasps than native birds in some New Zealand forests. They kill baby birds and out-compete native insects.”

The beech forests at the top of the South Island have the highest densities of invasive wasps in the world.

Introducing a gene drive into an insect like wasps starts in the lab where you insert a harmful trait into the queen germline of the DNA that is inherited by offspring.

She said editing DNA could introduce a fatal flaw into the wasps, and gene drives could ensure the change is spread amongst the population, suppressing numbers.

Being social insects, infected queens pass on these traits to their colony, so it will be particularly effective among wasps.

She said it would be a world first to use the gene drives to combat the pest, and as there were no native wasps, and the wasps don’t breed with other species, the changes would be contained.

“There are various ways to implement gene drives,” she said, “and the project will be co-designed with the affected groups.”                          

Her team will begin gathering views and would run scenarios and test constructs, and ensure the science was understood and this would assist with policy development.

Though not splicing the genes, Professor Black’s role is to co-ordinate the life of the project and ensure the proposed technology sits within the values of people in the most affected areas, including frustrated fruit growers whose produce is covered in the pests and aligns with the cultural frameworks of iwi.

“The idea is to bring people along on the journey, democratising the process so it feels comfortable and familiar, and not imposed on them.

“There are some concerns around the unknown which are valid,” she said, “and it can evoke a lot of emotions”.

She said there were also regulatory groups involved, such as DOC, EPA and MPI, and the work would inform policy.