The cutting-edge technology that could take the sting out of summer
November 2020
Wasps are a plague every summer, the unwelcome harasser at your picnic or tramping rest stop.
Kathryn from Radio New Zealand talks to Gemma McLaughlin, a PhD candidate at Otago University, who’s at the forefront of efforts to use cutting-edge technology to control New Zealand’s invasive wasp population.
The German wasp was introduced to New Zealand in the 1940s and the common wasp arrived in the 1970s, but is now widespread. Gemma is investigating how to use gene-editing to interrupt the invasive species’ reproductive cycle to help eradicate them.