Pest insects

Pest insects can have adverse and damaging impacts on agricultural production and market access, the natural environment, and our lifestyle. Pest insects may cause problems by damaging crops and food production, parasitising livestock, or being a nuisance and health hazard to humans.

Western Australia is free from some of the world's major pest insects. Biosecurity measures on your property are vital in preventing the spread of insects.

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development provides:

  • biosecurity/quarantine measures at the WA border to prevent the entry of pest insects
  • where relevant post border biosecurity measures
  • advice on widespread pest insects present in the state.

For advice on pest insects search our website, the Western Australian Organism List or contact our Pest and Disease Information Service (PaDIS).

For diagnostic services, please contact our Diagnostic Laboratory Services.

See Also

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Articles

  • Growers at CBH

    Stored grain insect resistance monitoring and management

    26 September 2013

    The Western Australian grain storage industry is focused on sealed storage and fumigation to achieve the federally mandated ‘nil tolerance’ for live insects in exports.

  • Native budworm trap

    Native budworm moth trapping in Western Australia

    23 January 2018

    Every year, at the end of July/beginning of August, volunteer farmers, agronomists and Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) staff commence weekly pheromone trapping for

  • Bull ant

    Ants: identification and control

    29 March 2017

    Early identification of important invasive and native problematic ants within Western Australia is critical to achieving successful control and preventing invasive ant species from gaining a footho

  • Live red imported fire ants crawling on a piece of wood.

    Red imported fire ant: declared pest in Western Australia

    10 October 2013

    Red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, is one of the most serious ant pests in the world and was found to be established in Brisbane, Queensland, in 2001.

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    Red imported fire ant

    27 November 2019

    Red imported fire ant (RIFA), Solenopsis invicta, is one of the most serious and invasive ant pests in the world, because of its harmful effects on people, agriculture, flora and fauna, in

  • Vegetable weevil

    Diagnosing weevils in canola

    17 February 2014

    Weevils are beetles with long snouts that can damage or kill young seedlings.

  • Chickens

    Stickfast fleas: control and eradication

    6 February 2014

    The stickfast flea, first recorded in Western Australia (WA) at Geraldton in 1913, is now a common disease in backyard poultry flocks, especially during summer.

  • Fabric pests damage

    Identifying and controlling clothes moths, carpet beetles and silverfish

    4 October 2013

    Clothes moths, carpet beetles and silverfish can be destructive household pests. Learn how to recognise and deal with them.

  • TPP Quarantine Area

    5 May 2017

    A Quarantine Area Notice is in place that applies restrictions to the movement of host plants produced in the Quarantine Area to other areas in the state where tomato-potato psyllid is not known to

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    Mealybugs in grapevines and deciduous fruit tree crops

    4 May 2015

    Two mealybug species, the longtailed mealybug (Pseudococcus longispinus), and obscure mealybug (Pseudococcus viburni) occur in grapevines and deciduous fruit tree crops in Western

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