The latest research stories from PEARG

I have a passion for playing mad scientist with pesticides, all in the name of making agricultural pest control safer and more sustainable. If you’re fond of growing roses, you’re probably familiar with the frustrating critters that invade them in your garden. The critters, in this case aphids, are unfortunately fond of your roses, along […]

Dr Perran Stott-Ross and Holly Hyojung Kang This article was first published on Pursuit. Read the original article. Mosquitoes are some of the most effective hunters on the planet. They can track you down at great distance by sniffing out the air you breathe. Once they find exposed skin, they use their needle-like proboscises to […]

By Miriama Pekľanská As my stay comes to an end, I would like to share a few words about myself and how I fulfilled my dream of coming to Australia to complete my three-month PhD internship with the Pest & Environmental Adaptation Research Group (PEARG). I am from a little village near the beautiful city […]

By Eddie Tsyrlin and Ary Hoffmann This article was first published on Pursuit. Read the original article. Australia’s unique and diverse wildlife is a source of national pride and global fascination. But this reputation is marred by our country’s alarming rate of species extinction. Australia has already earned the dubious title of the world leader […]

by Nancy Endersby-Harshman and Ary Hoffmann This article was first published on Pursuit. Read the original article Dengue fever is one of the most common tropical diseases in the world, affecting several million people every year. It is transmitted by mosquitoes, particularly a species known as Aedes aegypti, the yellow fever mosquito. Dengue is a […]

by Ary Hoffmann This article was first published on Pursuit. Read the original article. From Reservoir to Fitzroy, social media has been abuzz that parts of Melbourne are being overrun by crickets. The native Australian insect may be small, but it can make a whole lot of noise – something your ears might be recovering […]

Véronique Paris, Liam Ferguson, Nicholas Bell and Ary Hoffmann Banner: Marianne Coquilleau Mosquito-borne diseases like dengue and Japanese encephalitis may feel like far-distant nightmares for many Victorians. Here, the warmer summer months coinciding with the mosquito season are more synonymous with backyard BBQs and backyard cricket than the smell of tropical strength repellents and mosquito […]

By Aiswarya Sankar I was so excited when my nomination for a work integrated learning at the Pest & Environmental Adaptation Research Group (PEARG) was accepted. I had never been to a work integrated learning before and as a Diploma in Lab Techniques student at RMIT, it was a fantastic opportunity for me to spend […]

Curious about the progress in managing insect pests in Australian grain crops? Don’t miss the GRDC’s latest podcast episode to catch up on the headway made by the Australian Grains Pest Innovation Program, as Associate Professor Paul Umina provides an update on the ground breaking research currently underway. Tune in here. It’s estimated the Australian grains […]

Hiromi Yagui, Michael Kearney & Ary Hoffmann Most grasshoppers can fly and some, notably locusts, can travel thousands of kilometres. However, there is a whole family of grasshoppers in Australia that can’t fly at all, and they are not very good at hopping either. These are the morabine (or ‘matchstick’) grasshoppers, comprising around 240 species […]

Dr Perran Stott-Ross and Professor Ary Hoffmann Artwork by Tank Monsternova https://www.monsternova.art/ This article was first published on Pursuit. Read the original article. The more we learn about the biological world, the more complex it becomes. Nowhere is this more apparent than in recent discoveries about the ways in which microorganisms influence their hosts. The […]

By Véronique Paris, Nick Bell and Professor Ary Hoffmann This article was first published on Pursuit. Read the original article. It’s evening and you’re just starting to relax after a hectic day. Just as you do, you hear the unmistakable high whine of a circling mosquito. It’s something most of us are used to in […]

With all the wet weather in the South and East of Australia there is a surge in interest in the various insects enjoying the conditions. Here Eddie is interviewed on ABC Riverland, you can skip to 2:16:10 to hear the discussion.

Molecular biosecurity: Genomic databanks for managing invasive pests – Tom Schmidt Insect pests frequently establish invasions in Australia or are detected as incursions at borders, but little is often known about where they’ve come from or how best to manage them now they are here. One way to investigate these questions is to sequence and […]

Predicting the future threat of mosquitoes under climate change – Perran Stott-Ross Mosquitoes are major global pests, transmitting harmful pathogens to humans and livestock and causing significant nuisance biting. Climate change will lead to unprecedented temperature increases in Australia, shifting the habitats that are suitable for mosquitoes. Insects are capable of rapid evolution, but we […]