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00:00Why are we so resistant to change and what can we do to challenge the status quo?
00:06And how do invasive species threaten nature and their way of life?
00:10We'll be looking into all this and more on 10 Things to Know About.
00:22This week we're looking into some of the invasive species that threaten our biodiversity
00:26and checking out the latest monitoring technologies aimed at keeping them out.
00:44Invasive species can be found anywhere, but one pest in particular has been a cause of great concern
00:48for experts lately. A single Asian hornet was first spotted in Ireland back in 2021,
00:54but earlier this year a fully developed nest was found in Cork City,
00:58with the second nest being found a couple of weeks later. So just what are these dangerous
01:03invaders that we've been hearing about so much lately, and what can be done to curb their threat?
01:09Aidan Ohana was part of the task force, led by the National Parks and Wildlife Service,
01:14that investigated the Asian hornets that were found in Cork.
01:17As the name suggests it's native to Asia, so it lives in China, Vietnam, parts of India. We know
01:22that they can spread very fast when they're introduced beyond their native range. So this species,
01:27for example, was introduced into France about 20 years ago, and it has spread like wildfire around
01:31Europe ever since. It's now got a foothold in southern England, and we've had two nests in in
01:36Ireland this summer. Why are we worried about them being here?
01:39They're predators of other insects, so imagine them in the insect food chain. They're kind of bigger than
01:44our other wasps, so no other insects are going to eat them. And they feed other insects to their young,
01:49so they could have damaging effects on our pollinator populations.
01:54Asian hornets are a significant threat to Ireland's honeybees. A single hornet can kill
01:59and eat up to 50 honeybees a day, and each nest can house around 6,000 hornets. So studying the nests
02:06discovered in Cork is an important step in understanding and tackling their establishment in the future.
02:12This is bits of that that we're seeing here? This is a section of one of them, yes. So this nest was taken from Cove.
02:21So it's a small enough nest. This one has been dissected out to study the nest demographics and
02:27population size, and to take samples for future DNA work as well. As far as wasp nests go, you can
02:32actually identify the nest. They have a different architecture. So our native wasps have this kind of
02:37like these straight lines of carton that they build around it, and they're grey. Thankfully,
02:41Asian hornet nests are sort of this orangey-browny-yellow colour. Like most insects, they go
02:47through a complete metamorphosis. So they start off life as an egg, and then they spin a cocoon,
02:51so that's what these silk caps are, yeah. And I can actually, I'll open one up here to show you
02:55underneath. You can see there's a larva underneath it. It'll spend a few weeks in there, and then it will
03:00pupate, so it'll start to grow its legs and its antennae, and it's kind of more recognisable insect head.
03:06The workers are female. They're more valuable because they're the ones that help propagate the
03:09nest and feed new workers and tend the eggs and so on. Males are unfertilised, and they're only just
03:15used for mating in kind of late summer. Having the larvae will tell us two things. It'll just help to
03:19have extra specimens for DNA analysis, but also we cut them in time, and we'll be able to examine
03:24their gut contents and see what species of Irish insect they're being fed. Another trick to help that as
03:29well is as the larvae grow, so before they spin these cocoons, their entire gut contents get emptied into the
03:35cells called meconium. And meconium is basically, it's a record of everything they've ever eaten.
03:40Does doing that kind of analysis allow us to see what the potential threat of these insects are to
03:45Irish species? Yes. I expect that the honeybees will feature very strongly in these nests. I was in the
03:50field one or two days, and certainly we saw them carry off a honeybee. So honeybees would come to the
03:54bait station, and the hornet would just pick them up and fly off with them. And we saw them attack wasps as
03:59well, and green bottle flies. There were two Asian hornet nests found in Cork this summer,
04:06and Aidan is about to give me a fascinating, and slightly scary, insight into the complex structure
04:11of the much larger and intact one. This is the big one. And this would be a mask situation because
04:18it's way more fresh than the other one. Oh wow. It's very cool. Unbelievably cool. So it's about
04:2760 centimeters long. Yeah. It was hanging from a sycamore tree, so it would have been hanging like
04:33this upside down. Uh-huh. And you can see each different comb. So this was the first comb that
04:38was built, and then they build out, and they build down. So the second comb, third comb, fourth comb,
04:42fifth, sixth, seventh. And it's in order of age, so these later ones are brand new. They tend to be in
04:48older nests, the ones where they produce males and future queens from these newer parts. At the moment
04:52you can see there's nothing in them, just eggs, which tells us that this is a mature colony,
04:56but it wasn't yet at the stage that it was producing males and future queens. You can see cocoons,
05:01and some of the cocoons you can see there's actually adults ready to emerge.
05:07Terrifying. There you go. And so this is a female. It's a worker. It's cool. It's like a factory for wasps.
05:18It's a female. By analysing the nest structure, the insects eating habits, and their DNA profile,
05:32scientists can build a picture of where the hornets came from and what their potential impacts might be.
05:39This information can help our agencies plan a strategy for the years ahead and better inform and
05:44and alert the public on what to be on the lookout for.
05:48And so is there anything that we can do to stop
05:50species like the Asian hornet from becoming established here?
05:53We can probably never stop them from being introduced.
05:56Just the way trade works, I mean, trade isn't going to slow down
05:58between Britain and Ireland.
05:59There's goods and services and people moving all the time.
06:02And these are tiny wasps, they can hitchhike in the back of a car
06:04on a pallet of food.
06:06A British colleague was telling us that somebody had a cabbage
06:08from France in England, and they went to cut it open
06:10and a hornet crawled out of it.
06:12So they're really good at hiding.
06:13The best way to stop them from getting established in Ireland
06:15is to detect them early.
06:17That's what happened here, and it was really great
06:19that we have something like the invasive species alerts
06:21with the National Biodiversity Data Centre.
06:23It's great that we have a public that are clued in enough
06:25to spots that something looks a little bit weird
06:27and they can take a photo of it and upload it,
06:29and then nerds like me can then help identify it,
06:32and the National Parks and Wildlife Service
06:34will kick in a response to then track down and find the nest.
06:43One of the biggest problems that invasive species cause
06:53is the damage and destruction of crops.
06:56And one of the worst offenders across Europe is the stink bug.
07:00It doesn't look like much, but don't be fooled.
07:02It poses a serious threat to agriculture across the continent.
07:07Thankfully, the stink bug hasn't landed in Ireland yet,
07:10and scientists like Michael Gaffney are working hard
07:12to keep our crops safe from these smelly invaders.
07:17At the moment, it's estimated that it can attack
07:19about 300 different types of plants
07:21from about 48 different families.
07:23So from an agricultural perspective,
07:24you're talking about palm fruit, so your apples and pears.
07:27You're talking about soft fruit, raspberries and blueberries.
07:30It can attack tomatoes, it can attack potatoes, brassicas.
07:33It can also attack a wide range of trees.
07:35So things like ash, maple, sorbis, even buddlia.
07:38This is a brown marmorated stink bug.
07:40Called marmorated because if you notice on the edge of its body,
07:44it has little white flecks and brown,
07:46so it gives that kind of variegated look.
07:49And they kind of look like a green shield bug
07:51that you find in your garden,
07:52but where does the stink part of it come?
07:54So the stink part comes from scent glands,
07:56and when they get disturbed,
07:58when they get frightened, they release this scent.
08:01They also use the scent to attract other individuals,
08:04other stink bugs.
08:05And then if they gather together in your house,
08:07then it's a real problem.
08:08Yes, and you disturb them particularly,
08:10you can get quite a bad pungent odour,
08:12and you then at that stage do have to remove them
08:14or preferably have someone else remove them for you.
08:17But the good news is they're not an Ireland yet.
08:19They're not an Ireland yet.
08:20Its natural territory is around Japan, Korea and China.
08:24In the last 30 years,
08:26it has significantly expanded its range,
08:28mostly because of its habit of hitchhiking
08:31into shipping containers and into vehicles
08:33and other forms of transport.
08:35Last year in 2024,
08:36they did find the juvenile stages,
08:38the nymphs in the wild in Britain.
08:40So that would be, again,
08:41an indicator that there's the potential
08:43that the pest is becoming maybe established
08:44in that country,
08:45which then has implications obviously for Ireland.
08:47To monitor both native and invasive pests,
09:01farmers currently use simple sticky traps.
09:04They hang them in their fields,
09:05then check to see what insects have been caught
09:07before assessing if and how
09:09they might need to take action.
09:11Michael shows me this example of stink bugs
09:13caught on a sticky trap in Italy.
09:15It is a real challenge to monitor effectively.
09:19It's time consuming.
09:20You need a fair bit of knowledge
09:22to identify the traps.
09:23Often the traps are, as I say,
09:24are even fuller than this,
09:25so it can take quite a bit of time to go through it.
09:27So we felt that to speed it up,
09:29we needed some sort of automated system,
09:31even initially to take pictures.
09:32But then as the project developed,
09:33we discovered that actually
09:34we could use artificial intelligence
09:36and machine learning to actually help
09:38with the identification of the insects on the trap.
09:41The technological expertise
09:43to help identify these troublesome bugs
09:46is being developed by a team of researchers
09:48at Tyndall National Institute,
09:50led by Brendan O'Flynn.
09:52Computers and artificial intelligence
09:54are great at some things.
09:56One of the things that they're good at
09:57is looking at images
09:58and seeing very, very small,
10:00subtle differences
10:01between a wide variety,
10:03up to millions of images.
10:04And we were able to provide
10:06our system that we've developed
10:07with that training data set
10:09to help them understand
10:11what is a brown marmorated stink bug
10:13and what isn't.
10:14So how does it work?
10:15So typically this system
10:16will be deployed to operate autonomously.
10:19It will be battery powered.
10:20The solar panel will charge up that battery
10:22so it can exist for a long time
10:24in a field where there is no mains power.
10:28Every dawn and every dusk,
10:30this system takes an image
10:31of the two sides of this trap.
10:32And then the algorithm starts working.
10:35It establishes the regions of interest.
10:37So it sees blobs on the sticky trap
10:40and it understands
10:41that this might be an insect.
10:43But then the artificial intelligence kicks in
10:45and it looks at those regions of interest
10:47and understands which one
10:48is actually a brown marmorated stink bug
10:50and which is not.
10:51Okay, brilliant.
10:52And that's based on very subtle differences
10:54in terms of antenna, colour,
10:56carapace shape and size.
10:58You can see where each brown marmorated stink bug
11:01has been identified correctly
11:02as opposed to being some random insect
11:04that happens to be stuck
11:05onto the glue trap as well.
11:07So you've just developed
11:09a little built-in at-home entomologist
11:10in this little system.
11:11Effectively, it gives the farmers
11:13the capability to make decisions
11:15on their farms
11:16that previously they would have needed
11:18an entomologist to help them.
11:19And this is a prototype.
11:31You're developing it all the time
11:32and not just teaching the algorithm
11:34about what a stink bug looks
11:35but actually working out the best way of it
11:37functioning in the field.
11:39Absolutely.
11:39It's a big challenge taking technology
11:41like we're developing out of the lab
11:43and into the real world
11:44because it's the unknown unknowns
11:45that you have to encounter then.
11:47So we developed a second iteration
11:48of this system
11:49where we've stripped out
11:50the mechanical component
11:51in terms of the motor.
11:53We've integrated the improved algorithms
11:55but it's a far simpler system to deploy
11:58and it's a far simpler system to maintain.
12:00And this is really important
12:01from a cost perspective
12:02because the farmers
12:03have a very narrow margin
12:04to operate in
12:05and reducing the maintenance costs
12:07and the maintenance cycle
12:08with these sort of systems
12:08is really important.
12:09I love the idea
12:10that you're trying to make something
12:11that's quite, you know,
12:12very cutting edge
12:13but like as cheaply
12:14and as deployably as possible
12:16as accessible as possible.
12:18Yeah, so we designed this
12:19specifically to be simple
12:20but there's a lot of background
12:22engineering and science
12:23that has gone into the development
12:24of this prototype.
12:25There's mechanical engineering,
12:273D printing,
12:28electrical engineering,
12:30the edge analytics
12:30and machine learning obviously
12:32and the embedded systems
12:33programming of the microcontroller.
12:35So it's a very multidisciplinary team
12:36that has developed
12:37this quality prototype system.
12:39for deployment.
12:41The hope is the future
12:42is that we can develop systems
12:43like this that can do
12:44multiple insects
12:45that can monitor your aphids,
12:47your thrips,
12:48your common pests
12:49not just invasive species.
12:51Because the trap
12:52can run on batteries
12:53and can almost run
12:54relatively independent
12:55it could be deployed
12:56in forests,
12:57hard to reach areas.
12:58It could potentially be deployed
12:59in ports and places like that.
13:01Places where you may have
13:02shipping containers
13:03and other things coming in
13:03that might have invasive pests on it.
13:05This system shows how technology
13:10and AI can play a crucial role
13:12in protecting our food systems
13:14and biodiversity.
13:14I'm glad to say
13:16I don't know what a stink bug smells like
13:18and I really hope
13:19that we can keep it that way.
13:35Australia is a long way from here
13:50Australia is a long way from here
14:04and sometimes home comforts
14:06can make all the difference.
14:08So thought an English landowner
14:10in the 1800s
14:11who introduced rabbits for sport
14:13leading to a cascade
14:15of unintended consequences.
14:16quickly the rabbits began to multiply
14:19like, well, rabbits
14:22and a huge rabbit proof fence
14:24was built in a vain attempt
14:26to keep them from damaging crops.
14:29Fast forward to the 1930s
14:32and many ex-World War I soldiers
14:34had moved to Western Australia
14:36to farm.
14:37But when drought struck
14:38the native emu came
14:40through the wheat fields
14:41and being over six foot tall
14:43the emus made light work
14:45of the rabbit proof fence.
14:48Desperate times
14:49called for desperate measures.
14:51The former soldiers
14:52called in the current army.
14:54The great emu war
14:56had begun.
14:58Arriving at a rural outpost
15:00an army unit
15:01unpacked machine guns
15:02and unloaded
15:03on the emus.
15:05Now emus
15:06being master tacticians
15:07do two things
15:08scatter
15:09and run
15:10really fast.
15:12So fleet of foot
15:13is this flightless bird
15:14that even machine guns
15:15mounted on trucks
15:16were too slow.
15:18And after much
15:19mockery of its methods
15:20by the opposition
15:21in parliament
15:21the government
15:22called it off.
15:24The emus
15:24unaware that they
15:25were even fighting
15:26a battle
15:27had won the war.
15:29From the invasive
15:31introduction
15:31of brazen bunnies
15:33to the military misstep
15:34of machine gunning
15:35a national symbol
15:36the beloved emu population
15:38remains stable
15:39and in peacetime
15:41to this day.
15:42See you next time.
15:56It's a long way
15:57from the largest lake
15:58in the world
15:59to the largest lake
16:00here on the island
16:01of Ireland.
16:02But that's the distance
16:03that the zebra mussel
16:04has travelled
16:05to set up home
16:06here in Loch Nye.
16:07And this invasive mollusk
16:09is creating serious problems
16:11for this vital local resource
16:13and its ecosystem.
16:15I'm on the shores
16:17of the Loch
16:17to meet Caroline Murphy
16:18who carries out research
16:20on water pollutants
16:21and biohazards.
16:23Caroline,
16:24can you tell me
16:25why Loch Nye
16:26aside from being
16:27very beautiful
16:27is so important?
16:29It's the largest lake
16:30in both UK and Ireland.
16:31It takes 47%
16:33of the water
16:35from Northern Ireland.
16:37The water flows in
16:38from six different lakes
16:39and then it's also used
16:41as drinking water
16:42for 40% of Belfast
16:44so it's hugely important
16:45as well as the natural beauty.
16:48There's huge biodiversity
16:49here with ducks
16:50and a lot of migratory birds
16:52come and nest
16:53in Loch Nye
16:54during the summer.
16:55The concern here
16:56at Loch Nye
16:56at the moment
16:57is the arrival
16:58of the invasive zebra mussel.
17:01It originally came
17:02from the Caspian Sea
17:03and the Black Sea
17:05and it has overrun
17:07and taken over
17:08from the native
17:09freshwater mussel here.
17:11Those zebra mussels
17:12are the shells
17:12that we're seeing
17:13all around the place.
17:14Yes.
17:15There's an awful lot
17:16of them.
17:17Yeah, quite a bit.
17:18Yeah, they're much smaller
17:19than the native
17:21freshwater mussel
17:23but they're everywhere
17:24and it has caused
17:26an awful lot of damage.
17:27What it has done,
17:28it has filtered
17:29the water here
17:30in Loch Nye
17:31and clarified it
17:32so much
17:32that the sunlight
17:33can penetrate now
17:34much deeper
17:35down into the water column
17:37and this has done
17:38two things.
17:39It's brought extra sunlight
17:40and warmed up the water
17:41and that in combination
17:43with intensive agriculture
17:45in the area,
17:46climate change,
17:47more flooding
17:48has meant that
17:50there's been a tipping point
17:51for the production
17:52of algal blooms
17:53and some of these
17:54algal blooms
17:54are harmful.
17:57The first recorded
17:58appearance of toxic
17:59algae in Loch Nye
18:00was back in the 1970s
18:02but the blooms
18:03have been a major concern
18:04since 2023.
18:06We're heading out
18:07into the loch
18:08to get a better view
18:08of the problem.
18:15This is incredibly
18:16visually striking.
18:18I mean,
18:18I was not expecting
18:20it to be so dense.
18:20Yes,
18:21an unprecedented algal bloom.
18:23It's so vast
18:24and it's stretching
18:25across the lake
18:26as far as we can see.
18:28The important thing
18:28about this
18:29as well is to note
18:30that there can be
18:31a few different types
18:31of algae.
18:32Not all of them
18:33are toxic
18:33but it's important
18:34for us to be able
18:35to detect
18:36whether there are
18:38some toxic species
18:39present.
18:40Okay,
18:40and when you say toxic,
18:41what makes these
18:43algae toxic?
18:44They can produce
18:45a lot of different
18:45toxins.
18:46Microcystin,
18:47ILR,
18:48it's the most toxic
18:50and most ubiquitous
18:51so it's most common.
18:52It's not known fully
18:53what impact the toxins
18:55have on the lake
18:56because they don't seem
18:57to impact on the fish
18:59but they are very harmful
19:01for humans
19:02and for pets.
19:03It can cause nausea,
19:05diarrhea,
19:06vomiting
19:07and it's a hepatotoxin
19:09so it targets the liver.
19:11So if you were consuming
19:12the water over a long time
19:13it would damage your liver.
19:26While the green algae
19:27is clearly visible
19:28to the eye
19:29it's important
19:30to determine
19:30whether toxic microcystin
19:32is present
19:33within the algae
19:33and the team at DCU
19:36have developed
19:36an antibody based test
19:38that can be carried out
19:39on site
19:40to detect small amounts
19:41of the toxin
19:42in the water.
19:43To show me how the test works
19:45Caroline collects
19:46a series of samples
19:47from the lake.
19:48She lets the algae settle
19:49filters out any debris
19:51and adds each water sample
19:53to a tray
19:53with the special antibody.
19:56Paul Leonard
19:56is part of a research team
19:58developing the test.
20:00At current methods
20:01if you want to do this
20:02now we have to take
20:03a water sample
20:03put it in a van
20:05and bring it to a lab
20:06and it takes days
20:07it's very expensive
20:08requires highly skilled people
20:10it's amazing
20:11you get very few tests
20:12but if you wanted to monitor
20:14continuously over
20:15the spring, summer months
20:16when these blooms
20:17can happen
20:17you want me to do
20:18multiple testing.
20:20If the toxin is present
20:21in the water sample
20:22the antibody reacts
20:23and changes the colour
20:24the lighter the colour
20:26the more toxin there is.
20:27As you can see
20:28there's a lot of colour
20:29it looks complicated
20:30but it's actually not
20:31it's actually quite simple
20:32so if you can see here
20:34our colour is very dark
20:35and it gets lighter
20:35that's because we have
20:36a standard curve
20:37all that means
20:38is that we have
20:39known concentrations
20:40of toxin
20:40and it allows us
20:41to have a curve
20:42so we can quantify
20:43not only do you want
20:44to say it's there
20:44we want to know
20:45how much is there
20:46and then we have
20:47our water samples
20:48and we see where we have
20:49a very dark colour
20:50yes
20:51and that's where
20:51there is no toxin
20:52in the water
20:53so this sample here
20:54then is
20:55quite pale looking
20:56that's our water sample
20:58yes
20:59there is a bit of toxin
21:00in the water then
21:00there is
21:00so that's not great
21:02well it's what we expected
21:03well with the amount
21:04of algae that we saw
21:05I'd be surprised
21:06if we didn't
21:06right
21:07yes
21:07exactly
21:07so no swimming
21:08here today then
21:09no swimming
21:09of course
21:10presumably
21:12the water that goes
21:12to people's houses
21:13is treated
21:14and is safer
21:15right
21:15100%
21:16as it goes through
21:17water treatment
21:18and process
21:19no it's 100% safe
21:21perfect
21:21the researchers
21:23next aim
21:23is to make the test
21:24even more simple
21:25and accessible
21:26so it can be used
21:28by members of the public
21:29to test the water
21:30in local rivers
21:31lakes
21:32and canals
21:32something like
21:34your COVID test
21:35for water
21:35something that you
21:36could buy
21:37in the supermarket
21:38and you can come here
21:39and test the water
21:40and make sure
21:40that it's free to bathe
21:41free to do water sports
21:43or allow your pets
21:44in and swim as well
21:46and what we can also see
21:48is that since we're here
21:49we want to be able
21:50to get that result
21:51and have everybody
21:51to do the test
21:52the citizen science
21:53one of the things
21:54we can see
21:54if you can detect this
21:55with your mobile phone
21:56and we could geotag
21:58so not only
21:58can you get the result
21:59to know
22:00but we can see
22:00the result
22:01and go to the local authorities
22:02and we can see
22:03that there's an algal bloom
22:04or there's some toxins
22:05in the water being generated
22:06and so it's a quick alert system
22:08so I suppose
22:09the big point here
22:10is that it's almost impossible
22:11to stop invasive species
22:12but what we can do
22:14is come up with ways
22:15of working out
22:16the impacts
22:16that they're having
22:17and enable us
22:18to respond to that
22:19and to change our behaviour
22:21or to understand
22:22what we need to do
22:23in response
22:23to that changing environment
22:24is that fair?
22:25absolutely
22:26that's our 10 things
22:37to know about invasive species
22:39next time
22:40we check out the story
22:41of carbon
22:42and its essential
22:43yet highly complex role
22:44for all life on earth
22:46and we'll see you next time
22:48and we'll see you next time
22:49and we'll see you next time
23:19and we'll see you next time
23:21and we'll see you next time
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