Bugged out: Insect swarm gives region the creeps
New Zealand’s largest farm or massive public park? You decide.
The Department of Conservation (DOC) is open to a radical rethink of the historic Molesworth Station, the rolling highcountry farm linking Marlborough to North Canterbury.
The farming lease at the 180,000-hectare cattle ranch – about the size of Stewart Island – expires in 2020, and the public could help shape its future.
DOC community ranger Chris Wootton said a new online survey would collect and gauge public opinion, although calls for sealed roads, tour buses and airstrips weren’t likely to fly.
‘‘It’s a fascinating time; we’re looking at everything and we want as wide a range of people as possible across New Zealand to take part,’’ Wootton said.
A management plan for the publicly-owned Molesworth was approved in 2013. Its intention was to transition Molesworth from its traditional focus on farming to include more recreation and conservation activities.
Public access to Molesworth was managed to balance recreation, farming needs, fire risk and public safety. Access was only available to the public within certain areas and on specific times of the year.
The station became a recreation reserve in 2005, but the farm’s ‘‘remoteness and wildness’’ made it special, and different to other farm parks open to the public, Wootton said.
‘‘It has to be balanced, but it’s critical to look at a place with such high natural values at a time when tourism has boomed,’’ he said.
Molesworth was managed as a working high-country station through a farming lease and grazing licence to state-owned Landcorp Farming Ltd.
There were 3050 breeding They came at night, in their thousands, to the disgust of many.
From bedrooms and bathrooms to garages and living rooms, there was no escaping the swarm.
Even shops and the hospital were bugged out by the tiny critters, now thought to be Tasmanian grass grubs.
But what brought them, and in such unprecedented numbers?
Manaaki Whenua/Landcare Research entomologist Grace Hall said the grass grub larvae matured to adult, during the chrysalis stage, in warm and humid conditions.
‘‘Often what happens is you get a mass emergence especially after wet weather and the beetles are attracted to light and that’s why people often see them in and cows and a further 2140 head farmed at Molesworth.
‘‘The lease is due to expire and whether it gets renewed in its current form or something completely different is still to be decided.
‘‘There is no kind of bias on DOC’s part at all. If people want to open it [the reserve] up completely or shut it down, we’ll look at everyone’s views,’’ Wootton said.
But any ambitious plans could have unwanted consequences for neighbouring farms.
Upcot Station, in the Awatere Valley, had been in the Stevenson family for three generations. Farmer Bill Stevenson said they had been farming sheep and beef at Upcot Station ‘‘since forever’’.
He said if the Molesworth Station was made more publicly accessible it would create an issue for stock, and a shift away from a farming focus could create wider problems.
‘‘I reckon Molesworth is famous for its farming operation. I think taking stock off a lot of that country will be a fire hazard especially.
‘‘Most of our stock like to be undisturbed by the public,’’ he said.
Originally known as Barefells Run, Molesworth Station was given its name in 1866 by
John Henry Caton.
Molesworth Tour
Company cooperator Lee Swift said making the station more accessible could be a mixed blessing.
‘‘We absolutely love the Awatere Valley, and Molesworth
Station. It could open up more opportunities but at the same time it could affect the tours,’’ she said.
The survey closes on March 31. For further information and to take part in the survey visit surveymonkey.com. around their houses,’’ Hall said.
The grass grubs had a short lifespan and did not return to the same location every year, she said.
‘‘Often these things come in waves, there will be a whole heap this year and maybe not again for another three or four years.
‘‘They don’t live very long, probably a week or two as adults.’’
Hall said there had been previous swarms of Tasmanian grass grubs in Hawke’s Bay and Auckland.
‘‘It happens in more places but we’re only likely to notice something when they’re in human locations,’’ she said.
The swarm was a hot topic on social media, with hundreds discussing what was going on.
Renwick resident Norma Stirling was driving to Blenheim on Tuesday night to drop her daughter off when she thought it started raining.
But to her disbelief, the splatters on her windscreen were the bugs.
‘‘It was horrible. Even when we got into my daughter’s place [in Blenheim], she had a few at her door and I thought ‘oh there are those bugs again’,’’ Stirling said.
The bugs appeared to be drawn to light, she said.
‘‘There were just thousands on the road, literally thousands in the car light, [it was] unreal.
‘‘You would swear to God it was pouring rain, you honestly would,’’ Stirling said.
Stirling said she had never come across anything like the swarm she experienced on Tuesday night.
‘‘In different places we’ve come across swarms of bees and that’s not nice but not these bugs, I don’t actually think I’ve seen this little bug before,’’ Stirling said.
Even the hospital was not spared the bugs.
Wairau Hospital emergency department manager Sharon North said cleaners swept up hundreds of the bugs on Wednesday morning around the ambulance door area.
North said they did not cause a problem, but she would contact pest control about them.
McAs pest controller Bobby Jung said he received about half a dozen calls about bugs being scattered on floors on Wednesday morning, mainly from places that were lit at night.
‘‘They get attracted to light, once they see a light at night, it’s kind of like a guided missile, they get locked onto it.
‘‘The best thing to do would be if you’re in a house to turn off your lights at night because that’s the best non-chemical solution,’’ he said.