Farm Forestry New Zealand
PESTS AND DISEASES OF FORESTRY IN NEW ZEALAND
Termites in fallen power pole in Wellington
From Surveillance, Volume 40, No. 2, June 2013.
The New Zealand Fire Service notified MPI on 2 January 2013 of suspect termites in a power pole blown over the previous night during high winds in Wellington. The fire service was first on site following a 111 emergency call. A fire officer noticed the pole had broken at the base, exposing a termite colony, recognised a potential biosecurity risk and arranged for MPI to be contacted. The very old square Australian hardwood pole had originally been used to support trolley bus wires. The termite was identified as Glyptotermes tuberculatus, an Australian dampwood termite. Although this is not a species considered to be present in New Zealand, colonies are occasionally found in imported Australian hardwood poles and wharf timbers. The earliest such record was in 1940, and the most recent in 1995. No G. tuberculatus termite colonies have ever been found other than in association with the original piece of timber they arrived in, and there is no evidence of their ever starting a new colony here. The species’ status as a termite with minimal impacts is consistent with its significance in Australia, where it is limited to small colonies in logs and has minimal economic impacts. In general, its importance to New Zealand is considered less than our native drywood termites, which themselves cause limited problems, especially to houses. Instructions were provided to the field team tasked with replacing the pole to wrap both the above-and below-ground sections of the pole before transport to their depot. The pole was then cut into sections, steam-sterilised and deeply buried.
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