Photo: West Coast Shipping Co.
It’s not often the worlds of biology and the auto industry are mentioned in the same article. Most of the time, when they are mentioned, it usually spells bad news on the automaker side. The latest shipment of imported vehicles to Australia appears to be no exception.
The latest shipment of vehicles from abroad is stuck off the shores of Australia this week as a colony of Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs managed to find its way inside the ship and, as they say, bred like insects. The insect species is native to Japan, China, Korea, and other regions of Asia. Their proliferation into other parts of the world has been a minor annoyance to some and a major headache to others, depending on the situation.
In the past, these insects have devastated crop harvests, ruined native biodiversity, and proliferated into a force so enormous, there’s little hope of ever getting the problem under control. In this instance, it means a country starved for new cars on account of a global health crisis and global chip shortage is going to have to wait even longer for them to be delivered.
These stinkbugs can infiltrate everything from office buildings to houses and, of course, cars. They can then lie dormant in a state of suspended animation for up to months at a time before emerging as full-grown adults ready to consume every edible piece of matter they can find. Like everyone’s least favorite pest, the cockroach, these bugs are extremely challenging to eliminate.
Experts say it could take as long as four weeks to eliminate the stink bug threat completely. Meanwhile, orders for new cars continue to increase as the global economy picks up at a faster rate than previously anticipated. It’s an encouraging sign for Australian economics professors, but an absolute nightmare for companies that have to keep up with demand.
In the past, these insects have devastated crop harvests, ruined native biodiversity, and proliferated into a force so enormous, there’s little hope of ever getting the problem under control. In this instance, it means a country starved for new cars on account of a global health crisis and global chip shortage is going to have to wait even longer for them to be delivered.
These stinkbugs can infiltrate everything from office buildings to houses and, of course, cars. They can then lie dormant in a state of suspended animation for up to months at a time before emerging as full-grown adults ready to consume every edible piece of matter they can find. Like everyone’s least favorite pest, the cockroach, these bugs are extremely challenging to eliminate.
Experts say it could take as long as four weeks to eliminate the stink bug threat completely. Meanwhile, orders for new cars continue to increase as the global economy picks up at a faster rate than previously anticipated. It’s an encouraging sign for Australian economics professors, but an absolute nightmare for companies that have to keep up with demand.
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