28 February 2022.
Have you checked out our new Pest Hub yet?
At the end of last year Council launched an online pest and weed identification hub with more than 100 plants, animals, insects and diseases that are a threat to our region.
Pest Hub comes with a photo and explanation to increase awareness around what species are pests within Council’s Regional Pest Management Plan (RPMP).
Information includes how to identify and control these species from re-invading, spreading or even entering our region.
The development of the site involved staff from our Integrated Catchments team who focused on pest species identified within the RPMP.
For nationwide consistency, we also studied how other pest control groups and Councils were dealing with these species.
Pest Hub is user-friendly and aimed at the general public and great for school groups.
Anyone can use it to educate themselves on why a species is a pest and can be harmful to our region’s amenity, environmental and production values.
Information is easy to access. Users can type in a keyword like ‘vine’ or “yellow” and Pest Hub will shortlist all species with that feature.
Pest Hub also allows users to report any sightings and location coordinates of a pest species to Council. This improves our Biosecurity team's ability to understand the spread and control of these species within our region more effectively.